Planetary Health Alliance, 19 April 2024

Kuala Lumpur Call to Action on Planetary Health

In the vast tapestry of our interconnected world, Planetary Health encompasses the well-being of our planet’s ecosystems, the health of its inhabitants, and the delicate balance that sustains life. Planetary Health is a global movement, analytical framework and field of work focused on understanding, quantifying and addressing the growing human health impacts of anthropogenic global environmental change.

We, participants of the Planetary Health Summit and Sixth Annual Meeting, together with associated stakeholders, acknowledge with alarm that humans are altering the Earth’s ecosystems at such a scale and pace that our own survival, along with all life on Earth, is imperilled. Each year we move closer to potentially unstoppable, irreversible earth system tipping points. Whether in the climate, ecosystems, or other Earth processes, these tipping points pose a looming danger to humanity’s future on our planet. The accelerating pace of environmental degradation, driven by human activities such as deforestation, carbon emissions, increased water withdrawals from freshwater ecosystems, pollution, and loss of biodiversity, heightens the risk of triggering tipping points. From the collapse of ice sheets to the disruption of ocean currents and the degradation of vital ecosystems, leading to a sixth mass extinction, the interconnectedness of tipping elements is already manifesting in cascading effects and driving a global health and humanitarian crisis. The impact too on mental health is increasingly clear as we see increases in anxiety disorders, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, ecoanxiety and solastalgia.