Planetary Health
This article by Dr SanYuMay Tun is extracted from the forthcoming issue of Observatory magazine
SanYuMay Tun
The topical and emerging paradigm of Planetary Health is concerned with far more than the pervasive, adverse health impacts of climate change. Global environmental changes caused by human activities are already causing deaths and ill health. But to safeguard a liveable planet for humanity and the rest of nature, finance, economics and the law must be addressed. These realms of governance are critical in shaping the trajectory of human impact on the living planet.
The University of Oxford became a member of the Planetary Health Alliance (PHA) in 2023, demonstrating the importance of the solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary field of Planetary Health. This rapidly growing social movement is focused on analysing and addressing the impacts of human disruptions to Earth’s natural systems on human health and all life on Earth. Human activity has already caused or contributed to mass extinctions of plant and animal species, polluted the oceans and altered the atmosphere, with these lasting effects forming a risk to our continued existence. The PHA is a consortium of more than 360 universities and organisations around the world committed to understanding and addressing global environmental change and its health impacts.
Heatwaves, storms and floods are increasingly frequent and severe including in the UK, and around the world there is reduced food and water security, increased risk of infectious diseases, and deteriorating air quality. Associated with these changes are mental health impacts and reducing economic and social stability. Strong action from all sectors of society is urgently needed both to limit the crisis and to respond to the adverse impacts.
The provision of healthcare is itself a leading contributor to global heating and environmental degradation, responsible for around 5% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. Health professionals are well placed to understand the science and communicate the threat to health, and must be educated to understand the urgency and scale of the issues and how to act to address them in professional life and clinical practice. With a working group of medical educator colleagues from across the country, I led the development of Education for Sustainable Healthcare: A curriculum for the UK, which has been endorsed and published by the Medical Schools Council. An understanding of Planetary Health provides the foundation for this learning.
In recent years I have been spearheading Oxford medical school’s initiatives to educate the rising generation of medical professionals in Planetary Health and sustainable healthcare. The university is now engaging in expanding education for sustainability across all programmes.
The 2024 Green Templeton Lectures will break new ground in this area with keynote speakers discussing how health and Planetary Health intersect with the stability of financial systems, economics beyond growth, and the legal process. Although Planetary Health is a young discipline and still gaining ground, these issues must be seen and addressed as an integral part of human well-being. For instance, Planetary Health is becoming part of horizon scanning for systemic risk in the financial sector, and legal challenges to the destruction of life-supporting ecosystems are aimed at holding governments to account.
Dr SanYuMay Tun is a Research Fellow of Green Templeton College and the Lead for Education for Sustainable Healthcare in the Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford. She is convenor of the Green Templeton Lectures 2024 on the theme of Planetary Health.
