New Harvard Hub Melds Work on Human and Planetary Health

Friday Harvard University, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and a range of other partner organizations are launching the Planetary Health Alliance, a new effort to dramatically improve our understanding of the linkages between environmental change and human health across the globe.

The Planetary Health Alliance is supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, following on the recent release of the groundbreaking Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health, which outlines key opportunities to advance public health through more robust approaches to environmental stewardship.

Climate change is only one of many types of environmental change effecting Earth’s life support systems—in fact, there is now a serious risk that the dramatic gains to public health made since the 1950s could plateau or even reverse as a result of human degradation of a myriad of natural systems.

Dr. Samuel Myers, Senior Research Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, will serve as director of the Planetary Health Alliance, alongside Harvard Chan School Research Scientist Dr. Christopher Golden, who will be the associate director of the project.  Both Myers and Golden have extensively studied the intersection of environment and health, witnessing firsthand the trans-disciplinary nature of the field.  The Alliance will be based at Harvard University and will involve the Harvard University Center for the Environment and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“The human transformation of most of Earth’s natural systems represents a clear and present danger to global health.  There’s an enormous amount that can be done to address these threats—that’s why it’s important that we recognize these issues and develop science-based plans of action,” said Dr. Myers.  “We are already seeing suffering due to global environmental change. How much suffering happens is up to us.”

“Environmental problems often span many disciplines, and the Harvard Center for the Environment has become adept at bringing together researchers and policymakers from diverse fields, making it the perfect home for the Planetary Health Alliance,” said Daniel Schrag, director of the Harvard Center for the Environment.  “The goal is to grow capacity and use Harvard’s convening power to create a community around planetary health, and create excitement for people currently working in this space.”

The Planetary Health Alliance will be grown into a consortium of universities, non-governmental organizations, governmental entities, and other partners, working together to build a community of stakeholders to foster research, training, and policy action at the intersection of human-driven environmental change and public health.

Read more at New Harvard Hub Melds Work on Human and Planetary Health