The emerging field of planetary health

And here you have my latest feature for Environmental Health Perspectives, a story about the emergence and expansion of a new field known as "planetary health." What is planetary health? Well, that's not so easy to explain in a couple sentences. But here's a tidbit from the opening to my story that will help. For more, you'll have to read the whole thing.

“There’s a bit of a paradox that we’re seeing for the last 100 to 150 years,” says Michael Myers, managing director for health at the Rockefeller Foundation. “Exploitation of the environment has contributed to human health. By exploiting Earth resources we have a more comfortable existence, and our life spans have increased considerably. But we’re now at a tipping point in which the exploitation of the environment is beginning to have a negative impact on human health.” The same natural systems that have benefited us for so long, he says, are now beginning to collapse. From this realization has come a new term: planetary health.