{"id":5048,"date":"2022-07-18T17:15:51","date_gmt":"2022-07-18T15:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eat-life.fundesplai.org\/salut-planetaria\/"},"modified":"2023-08-09T17:05:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T15:05:06","slug":"planetary-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eat-life.fundesplai.org\/en\/planetary-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Planetary health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is planetary health? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

What is its relation with sustainable food systems?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Planetary health<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0consists in attaining the highest level of health, welfare and equity worldwide through sensible management of human (political, economic, and social) systems without compromising the future of humankind or the planet’s natural systems. In simpler words: planetary health is the\u00a0health of human civilisation and the state of the natural systems on which it depends<\/strong>. Such systems must always remain within safe environmental boundaries (Whitmee et al., 2015<\/a>; Brousselle & McDavid, 2020<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human activity has had many impacts on Earth’s natural systems. In particular, it has affected the biosphere, hydrosphere, edaphosphere, atmosphere, and geosphere, altering their composition and dynamics and resulting in an obvious problem since people’s health and welfare depend on those spheres<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WHERE COULD WE FIND A TURNING POINT IN THESE IMPACTS?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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The key is the Industrial Revolution.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Since then, society has mobilised to exploit resources and positively consider economic growth synonymous with well-being. This paradigm has led to population growth, increased life expectancy, reduced infant mortality, and reduced extreme poverty. Yet, it has compromised the natural environment, too (Brousselle & McDavid, 2020<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the struggle for the preservation of the environment and the sustainable exploitation of natural resources, there is a growing awareness that having a sick planet, i.e. a planet pushed to the limit without any real strategy for a cure, is increasingly lowering people’s quality of life to the point of death. <\/strong>Health-promoting agencies had focused their attention on social determinants and equity <\/strong>but too little in comparison to ecological determinants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also entails\u00a0a problem because health’s most fundamental determinants are the natural systems that make Earth a livable planet and provide us with air, water, food, fuel and other materials necessary for life.<\/strong>\u00a0Despite this, the very economic and social development we created to meet the social determinants of health threaten natural systems. In addition,\u00a0the benefits and burdens of this development are unevenly distributed, resulting in ecological and social injustice<\/strong>\u00a0(Hancock, 2021<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Health Organisation (WHO) adheres to these statements and reasserts that nature is the very source of human health.<\/strong> Consequently, without any doubt, the most crucial task health-promoting agencies face in the 21st century is to pay attention to planetary health.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN HEALTH<\/mark><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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Despite the difficulties in attributing health changes observed in a population to recent climate change, there is a pattern emerging of changes associated with climate and weather in several regions of the world.\u00a0The associated risks affect humans unevenly<\/strong>, for they are higher in the poorest and most vulnerable areas. Besides, high rates of preexistent disease and ailments that are sensitive to climate amplify such risks. If the world warms by 3-5 \u2070C by 2100, the health consequences, directly and through massive social and economic disruption, will be severe (McMichael, 2014<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The escalating population numbers, an ever-expanding global middle class of consumers, intensified economic activity, and pervasive technologies put excessive pressure on the natural biophysical and ecological systems that form the Earth’s life support system. All this\u00a0leads to\u00a0planetary overload<\/em>, where the well-being, health and survival of human populations and other species are at risk<\/strong>\u00a0McMichael, 2014<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listed below are some examples of situations<\/strong> that the human species will most likely suffer as a result of the new planetary conditions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n