Planetary health

Global warming, rising sea levels, ocean acidification and depletion of the Earth's natural biodiversity - the impacts of humankind's drive for progress are profound and wide-reaching. They can also be fatal - not just to other species, but to ours as well.

Scientists are increasingly drawing a link between the wellbeing of the planet and human health, and turning to a more integrated view of the global ecosystem that views Earth and the life it supports as a single sustainable system.

"In a collective sense, life is in its totality very much a self-supporting system - and if you mess with it too much, you change it in a way that has non-linear impacts," said Tim Lenton, chair in climate change and Earth systems science at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.

"Historically, we have taken the view of the environment as something out there - separate from us, an externality, rather than a system which we are a part of," Lenton told DW. "If anything, we are an internality of that system."

To protect the system that supports us as a species, many now argue, we must find solutions that broaden the focus from single issues such as climate change and bring in a diverse range of disciplines - embracing culture, economics and ethics as well as the physical sciences.

'Anthropocene Epoch'

Last week, a report by the Rockefeller Foundation and a commission of UK medical journal The Lancet concluded that human activity is "jeopardizing Earth's natural systems and health of future generations."

The report, entitled Safeguarding Human Health in the Anthropocene Epoch, details the dramatic changes that have occurred in an age where one species - our own - has so profoundly altered the physical conditions of the planet as to warrant the description of a new geological epoch, dubbed the "Anthropocene."

It shows that while poverty has fallen and life expectancy has risen, water, energy and fertilizer use have also shot up, as have water shortages and carbon dioxide emissions.

The authors warn that we could begin to reverse many of the gains civilization has made in human wellbeing. They also hail the birth of a new discipline - planetary health - to understand the risks we face.

"Put simply," the report says, "planetary health is the health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems on which it depends."

Over recent years, a growing number of studies have focused on the health impacts of burning fossil fuels, arguing that if properly accounted for, the social costs of non-renewable energy sources would make them economically unviable.

From food security to disease

Now, the Lancet report has linked a much broader range of environmental impacts to human health. These include the effects of soil degradation and loss of biodiversity on food security; threats to sanitation from declining freshwater availability; the spread of disease as a result of environmental change; and the dangers of extreme events tied to climate change, such as storms, wildfires and droughts.

"We really to look at the planetary scale of change and implications for human health at that scale," Frederick Boltz, one the report's authors, told DW.

Two companion studies were published alongside the report. One showed that declining populations of pollinating animals could lead to up to 1.4 million excess deaths each year as a result of increased vitamin A and vitamin B (folic acid) deficiency.

The other looked at the declining zinc content of important food crops in response to rising carbon emissions. This is expected to result in rising cases of zinc deficiency, which can lead to premature death from infectious disease due to reduced immune function.

The authors warn that we are only beginning to understand the myriad of complex ways in which environmental damage threatens human health.

Happy planet, happy people

In addition to arguing for the new discipline of planetary health#, which brings together different branches of science to examine the state of the planet, the Lancet report also calls for new approaches in economics that account for social and environment impacts.

It questions the narrow view of GDP as a measure of human progress, referring to alternatives such as The Social Progress Index and the Happy Planet Index. These take into account factors such as the chance to pursue goals and dreams, and countries' ability to deliver long, sustainable and happy lives.

Lenton believes there is an inherent logic to linking what might seem like intangible goals such as happiness to our relationship with the natural world.

"Time spent outside, with oceans and forests, statistically correlates with measurable indicators of health and wellbeing," he says. "Contact with the biosphere is good for our health - which makes sense, because we can't live without it."

And just being reminded of our place in the global ecosystem can bring the challenges of protecting our planet - which may seem bleak and insurmountable - back to a human level.

"It also reminds you that you can play your part - I can't fix global energy problems, but I can fight to protect my local woodland," Lenton concluded.