Planetary Health: Protecting Our World to Protect Ourselves

The field of Planetary Health has emerged in recent years, based on the notion that transgressing planetary limits—a hallmark of the now-defined Anthropocene Epoch that acknowledges human impact on the planet—is incompatible with continued human thriving. Professor Howard Frumkin, M.D., DrPH, an expert on the intersection between public health and the built environment, climate change, energy policy, and nature contact, will keynote an evening that defines planetary health and how the concept can be used to find a way forward for humans and the planet.

Planetary Health recognizes safeguarding human health requires maintaining the health of the planet on which life depends.

Frumkin, a professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine and former director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Preventing, will trace the evolution of field of Planetary Health, explore how a variety of planetary changes may threaten human health, and outline some strategies that blend environmental stewardship with public health, on a global scale. Panelists representing UW-Madison’s environmental, medial and social sciences will respond to Frumkin’s talk. They include:

• Monica White, Environmental Sociology and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
• Gregg Mitman, Medical History and the Nelson Institute
• Lyric Bartholomay, Veterinary Medicine and Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Disease
• Maureen Durkin, Population Health Sciences
• Rick Keller, International Division
• Jonathan Patz, Global Health Institute