What Is Planetary Health And How Will It Benefit Us?

“The health of men and the planet must go hand in hand to guarantee our well-being and sustainability.” It is the vision that Josep M. Antó, director of ISGlobal, contributed to the Climate Change Summit, COP 25. It is an intelligent look at the need to reconcile planetary boundaries to create harmony between the health of the Earth and the race human.

This vision, more holistic and inclusive, could be applied in Medicine, Politics, Economy and Society to face Climate Change. A quick intervention in the sense of integrating health and planet in a new concept of “planetary health” could avoid events that lead us to a point of no return, suddenly changing the course of our existence.

Why walk towards planetary health?

Professor Andy Haines, a member of the Alliance for Planetary Health, is an epidemiologist, academic and professor at the London School. His research is based on low-carbon policies.

In his opinion, we are suffering from some of our planetary limits such as Climate Change, and that is affecting human health. And we must not forget the risks to human health of not caring for the planet:

• We are losing biological biodiversity, which influences the loss of ecosystems that produce medicinal plants.
• Climate change influences the availability of drinking water and CO ₂ emissions that acidify the oceans.

Desertification will impact the quality and quantity of water that we will have available.

• Infectious diseases, those transmitted by animals to humans and by vectors such as Lyme, those related to heat or allergens, will increase.
• There will also be forced migrations, civil strife, impacts on mental health or the impoverishment of people due to the lack of food and work.
• About 1 billion people will be exposed to such extreme heat that it will be dangerous for them to work in the warmer months.

What to do to integrate caring for the planet into health?

This is already warned by the reports of the UN panel of scientists on Climate Change (IPCC) and Josep M. Antó asked not to ignore this point: “We have to urgently include the health of the planet in the political Agenda and make health systems within the vanguard of Climate Change since they are not, “he lamented. Addressing this will pose very big challenges:

• Encourage a planetary diet

A flexiterian diet, with more vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, and seeds will cut waste in half. At the same time, it would prevent the death of between 10 and 11 million people, some due to lack of food and others due to excess.

Both the UN GEO 6 report and the EAT-Lancet “Food in the Anthropocene” report ask us to take action to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement. The goal is for a planetary diet to feed a world population of 10 billion people to avoid premature deaths and other problems around 2050.

Not taking into account human and planet limits can lead to an increase in diseases and serious problems. Doctors such as the primary care of the SEMfyc are essential to educate the patient.

• Reduce the emission of CO ₂ in hospitals

Our sanitary systems produce between 5-10% of CO _{2 in} the world. Hospitals have to have leadership by being sustainable and being good for health and the planet. And a great effort must be made in mitigation and adaptation strategies in the face of extreme effects such as heat waves, especially in the next 50 and 100 years.

That is why at ISGlobal, Planetary Health is part of the research with other institutions such as the Pompeu Fabra University. “Planetary Health must be a new field of research that can be applied to all policies when we legislate and when we investigate,” proposed Antó.

• Apply courageous policies that reduce adverse effects

It is important to know if the policies we apply are the most appropriate and if they produce adverse effects. “What is lacking to take action is greater political will and a new generation of courageous politicians,” snapped Cristina Narbona, former Secretary of State for the Environment 26 years ago.

The policy has given companies more space than their due, according to Narbona: “The power of the large multinationals has caused a lethal economic model for the health of the planet and people.”

The former Secretary of State for the Environment considers that GDP is currently being considered to create more jobs and more growth, but it is not thought that environmental problems should be solved before adopting the Precautionary Principle, as dictated by the G30 Agenda or the Limits Planetariums.

That is why it is convenient to draw up a roadmap to comply with decarbonization and other measures from 2030 onwards. “Citizens should pressure politicians with accurate information because we have scientific evidence that we have exceeded planetary limits,” he concluded.