Health Professions Education at a Time of Triple Planetary Crises

While climate change has been described as the greatest threat to health in the 21st century, with the potential to reverse 50 years of health gains, we are currently facing a triple planetary crisis. In addition to a changing climate, rising land and ocean temperatures are changing weather patterns, resulting in wildfires, floods and melting polar regions - the latter leading to rising sea levels. Through our largely unsustainable activities, pollution in all of its forms (air, heavy metals, microplastics, ‘forever chemicals’, etc.) is impacting not only humans but also other planetary ‘beings’. As a result of climate change and pollution, our declining ecosystem health is leading to extensive biodiversity loss. In 2023, we now find ourselves living beyond the safe operating space for six of nine planetary boundaries. Planetary justice describes the inequitable intergenerational impacts of these planetary crises not just for humans but for all of Earth’s inhabitants.

Considering these pressing health and ecological issues, it is imperative that health professions education prepares graduates to practice sustainable healthcare (‘do no harm’) and to respond to emergencies such as smoke inhalation, burns, and eco-anxiety. Health professions education therefore needs to prepare graduates to be planetary stewards and eco-ethical leaders to ensure more equitable access to our planet’s limited resources for current and future generations. This will require more sustainable lifestyles and professional practice, and in many instances it may involve ecosystem restoration. The 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) provide considerable guidance in terms of sustainable development for current and future generations, while Indigenous ways of knowing, doing and being - which have frequently been marginalised and dismissed - offer strength-based approaches to living in harmony and caring for ecosystems and all of the planet’s inhabitants.

This Research Topic is seeking innovative contributions in health professions education that prepare graduates to not only work on a changing planet but to also ‘take action’ as planetary citizens, planetary stewards and eco-ethical leaders. Submissions should provide sufficient detail, and where possible, measurable outcomes, such that others may be able to adapt the program or intervention at their own institutions.