A holistic framework for facilitating environmental and human health

Abstract

In the Anthropocene, health is necessary to achieve global sustainable development. This is a challenge because health issues are complex and span from humans to ecosystems and the environment through dynamic interactions across scales. We find that the health issues have been mainly addressed by disciplinary endeavors which unfortunately will not result in panoramic theories or effective solutions. We recommend focusing on the intricate interactions between humans, ecosystems and the environment for developing common theoretical understandings and practical solutions for safeguarding planetary health, with human health as the key indicator and endpoint. To facilitate this paradigm shift, a holistic framework is formulated that incorporates disturbances from inner Earth and our solar system, and accommodates interactions between humans, ecosystems and the environment in a nested hierarchy. An integrative and transdisciplinary health science is advocated along with holistic thinking to resolve our current health challenges and to achieve the health-related sustainable development goals.

Keywords

Health science / Surface earth system / Human environment interactions / Environmental pollution, Sustainable development

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA23070201) and The Science-based Advisory Program of the Alliance of International Science Organizations.

Declaration of Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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