By most measures, human health is better now than ever before in human history.  Since 1950, global average life expectancy has risen 25 years to its current level of 72 years, and infant mortality rates have decreased substantially from around 210 per thousand live births to just over 30 per thousand now. 

However, these gains in human health have been unequally distributed, and alongside them, and overall development gains made in the same period, we have witnessed environmental degradation on a massive scale.  Pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change are among the striking examples of the damage caused by collective human endeavour. 

The report of the Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on Planetary Health found that continuing environmental degradation threatens to reverse the health gains achieved during the last century. The consequences are far reaching, ranging from the emergence and spread of infectious diseases like SARS, Ebola, and Zika, to malnutrition, conflict, and displacement. 

Those who are the least responsible for driving these changes – poor people in developing countries – are the most vulnerable to them. In short, we have been mortgaging the health and wellbeing of future generations to realise economic and development gains in the present.  

But, the Commission report does conclude that solutions are within reach. They will require, however, a redefinition of prosperity to focus on quality of life and improved human health, together with respect for the integrity of the natural environment. The report identified three sets of challenges:

• First, conceptual challenges, which include the pressing need for genuine measures of progress which go beyond gross domestic product to measure human development and the state of environment.

• Second, governance challenges, such as how governments and other institutions recognise and respond to threats, especially when faced with uncertainty and the need to pool resources.

• Third, the report identified research challenges, such as ignoring the social and environmental context of human health, and the relative lack of cross-disciplinary research.

Planetary health is about safeguarding the health and wellbeing of current and future generations through good stewardship of Earth’s natural systems, and by rethinking the way we feed, move, house, power, and care for the world.  It requires us to challenge received wisdom, to acknowledge the interdependence of all species, and to think, and to act, in more integrative ways.  

To respond effectively to the health challenges of the Anthropocene, we need to grapple with the global transitions that are currently shaping our lives – demographic, epidemiological, food, energy, urban, economic, cultural and ecological.  Humanity can chart a safe, healthy and prosperous course ahead by addressing unacceptable inequities in health and wealth within the environmental limits of the Earth however, to do so, will require the generation of new knowledge, the implementation of wise policies, decisive action, and inspirational leadership. 

As a member of the Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on Planetary Health, I am delighted see this timely book One Planet, One Health published by Sydney University Press.  The book will be a valuable resource for policymakers, practitioners and students interested in learning more about planetary health, and concerned about the need for urgent action in the interest of planetary health.   

 

Anthony Capon

 

Inaugural Professor of Planetary Health and Director, Planetary Health

Platform, The University of Sydney

Works cited