Marie Studer

Primary Convener:
Marie Studer, Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health (JHIPH) & Planetary Health Alliance (PHA)

Over the past 15 years Planetary Boundaries and Planetary Health have emerged in parallel from different scientific fields - the former assessing the stability of the Earth system, the latter emphasizing the dependence of human health and wellbeing on a stable Earth system. The associated scientific communities are now calling for closer integration of their fields to safeguard health on a rapidly changing planet.  

The Planetary Boundaries framework, conceived and led by Earth system scientists, measures and tracks nine processes relative to their safe boundary levels that regulate the Earth system such as climate change, ocean acidification, changes in biogeochemical flows, biosphere integrity and others. Largely due to human activity, seven of the nine Planetary Boundaries have been exceeded, indicating a more unstable and less resilient Earth system.  

Recognizing that Earth system change is contributing to a growing global burden of disease, health scientists established the Planetary Health framework coincident with the evolution of Planetary Boundaries. Planetary Health is a solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary field and social movement focused on analyzing and addressing the impacts of human disruptions to Earth’s natural systems on human health and all life on Earth.  

While Planetary Boundaries and Planetary Health frameworks are interdependent, the scholarship and communities working on these topics have remained quite separate. Recently, there has been a call for closer integration of these communities focusing on the following four shared principles: 

• A destabilized Earth system is an imminent threat to human health and well-being 

• Justice is a central tenet for safeguarding health within Planetary Boundaries 

• True benefits and costs of policies need assessment, including co-benefits of policies that regenerate natural systems while improving health outcomes 

• Integrated science communication across Planetary Boundaries and Planetary Health communities and the public will broaden the constituency for transformative change.  

This presentation will highlight the recent advances toward integrating Planetary Boundaries and Planetary Health scholarship and action and invite the AGU community to contribute to identifying strategies and pathways for addressing the Earth crisis.

Index Terms
0230 Impacts of climate change: human health
0240 Public health
1630 Impacts of global change

Cross-Listed:
GH - GeoHealth
GC - Global Environmental Change