The Intersectionality of Planetary Health and Health Inequalities
Along with the core DIS courses I’ve been taking this semester, I took an elective from the Planetary Health programme, called ‘Global Governance of the Health-Environment Nexus’. This course aimed to critically assess the decision-making bodies on issues related to both health and the environment, emphasising that health-environment issues are often seen as unrelated. The common approach to these issues neglects their intrinsic interactions and if we really aim to achieve sustainable development, it is important to understand their interrelation.
The field of Planetary Health is very new to me, but has really made me think more in depth about the link between the health of the planet and the injustice we see in the world. Rockstrom (et al., 2009) developed a framework of nine planetary boundaries that sets out the safe operating space for humanity to live in, with more recent publications from the Earth Commission adapting these boundaries to include justice and equity. Within this Safe and Just Operating Space (SJOS) for humanity to live safely on planet earth, six of the boundaries have already been breached, meaning that we are pushing Earth system to unsafe levels. And as we are aware, the consequences of breaching these boundaries are overwhelmingly experienced by marginalised communities. For example, with climate change, the boundary with the most public attention, the countries and states facing the consequences such as rising sea levels, wild fires, droughts etc. tend not to be the countries that have caused these impacts by being the highest polluters.
For this class, I got to focus on the city of Glasgow and try to address how its governance on health-environment issues could be more streamlined, and how we can aim for justice and equity within what we consider the planetary boundaries space. I made the recommendation that Glasgow should develop its own local planetary boundaries, as at current time there is only an in-depth plan on mitigating and adapting for climate change. Although this is really important and imperative, the focus on climate change inadvertently sidelines the eight other planetary boundaries, ignoring how these interact with one another and how some studies have shown that breaching one boundary could cause a cascade effect that triggers others.
As someone with an interest in health inequalities, this assignment really got me thinking more about the impact of the environment on health. As a Geographer as well, this does seem obvious and is something you learn early on in your studies of Geography – you are a product of your environment, space shapes our lives and circumstances etc…
However, I’ve never thought in depth about the actual ecological impact or influence of health, and how this is a two way relationship – whilst the environment impacts health, health also impacts our environment. Thus, I’m interested in thinking more about how the pursuit of social justice also requires the pursuit of environmental justice. If we pursue environmental justice, will our societies become more socially just? How can we ensure equity in pursuit of environmental health? How could health interventions be designed to address both individual well-being and ecological sustainability?
Even though I’ve done a fair amount of studying on issues of health inequalities, environmental science is rarely ever seen in these discourses, especially in thinking about how an unhealthy population actually influences the health of the planet. The more I learn about Planetary Health, the more this becomes really surprising as these two issues are both so interrelated that addressing one requires awareness of the other. We can’t fully understand health and health inequalities without understanding their relationship with ecology and planetary health.
Learning about governance in this class also got me thinking about the importance of municipal bodies in shaping the state of our planet as a whole. Cities currently produce 76% of global carbon emissions, thus aiming for net zero will require work primarily within our cities. However, this pursuit is challenging in that it is seen as a threat to economic development within cities. Even within the case study of Glasgow, seen as more progressive and environmentally conscious compared to other cities. Some of the studies I read really critiqued Glasgow’s approach to improving ecological health, as they took the perspective of ‘health follows wealth’ – if we focus on economic development, health will automatically improve. This perspective neglects the interactiveness of the planetary boundaries model and really undermines the significance of health inequalities within the city. Thus, it is crucial for cities to explore innovative strategies that reconcile environmental goals with economic development.
In conclusion, my exploration of the Planetary Health field this semester has been really eye-opening and has taught me a lot about the crucial importance of recognising the relationship between human health and the environment and as seeing these two issues as equal in health-environment initiatives. I really hope to integrate these ideas into my dissertation at the end of this programme, thinking more critically about the approaches we take to make society more equal, especially within the field of health inequalities.
