Planetary Health: A New Paradigm that Combines the Health of the People and the Planet

Date

01/02/2022

Hour

16.00 - 17.00 h (CET)

Place

Online

Speakers

Josep M. Antó (ISGlobal), Cristina O’Callaghan Gordo (ISGlobal, UOC), Antoni Plasència (ISGlobal), et al.

Over the past decades, human health and well-being have improved globally. We have seen a reduction in child mortality, an increase in life expectancy and a reduction in poverty. This has been possible thanks to all kinds of scientific, technological, urban and social advances, but also to the overexploitation and alteration of natural systems. Hence the importance of addressing Planetary Health, a new area of knowledge focused on characterizing the impacts on human health of disruption of Earth's natural systems by anthropic causes, as well as analysing the political, economic and social systems that mediate this situation.

In this framework of global challenges, Planetary Health offers an unprecedented opportunity to promote profound changes in our societies to continue to improve human health within the sustainable limits of the planet, without compromising the health and well-being of future generations, in a just and equitable society.

Together with the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), on February 1, we are organising the first conference "Planetary Health: A New Paradigm that Combines the Health of the People and the Planet" in order to bring this new concept closer and address the challenges posed by the global climate and environmental crisis for our societies. Interational experts in this field will participate in the event, which will be presented and moderated by the journalist and science communicator Cori Calero.

The virtual meeting will also be the Master on Planetary Health presentation space, which the three institutions launched in October 2021 with the aim of training future professionals from an interdisciplinary perspective. The Masters facilitates the acquisition of knowledge in order to analyse the risks that the global environmental and climate crisis poses to human health, assess the possible impact and propose adaptation and mitigation solutions.

The conference will be offered on the UOC's YouTube channel in Spanish, although it will feature some interventions in Catalan and English.