Planetary Health is not just an environmental health issue; it’s a social justice issue, and that is of great relevance to an institution like NOSM University.

Suddenly, I came upon two teenaged boys, who vigorously flagged me down as I rounded a bend. I stopped the car, rolled down my window, and cheerfully said, “Hi, guys!”

One of them replied, “We’re asking people whether they’ve voted. Have you voted?”

Massive overshoots of planetary boundaries while so many people still live poorly in so many ways? Surely, there must be a way to live safe, healthy, happy lives on this planet without simultaneously wrecking it?

if I were an American fetus, I’d ponder whether something like this could happen in Canada. I’d argue that it makes no sense to fight for life then display little regard for its wellbeing. I’d ask whether cherishing life shouldn’t also involve protecting it from health threats like air pollution and climate change. And I’d plead for a healthy planet, because I want to do more than just live. I want to thrive.

Now, there are 8 billion of us, and we’re capable of damaging the planet not just locally, but on a planetary scale. In fact, humans are now the dominant force for change in the biological, chemical, and geological processes of Planet Earth. That’s why we’ve named this new epoch after ourselves: the Anthropocene, from the Greek anthro for “man”, and cene for “new”. Yes, we humans are making everything new, but not necessarily better.

The 2020s are the make-or-break decade for decarbonization. The choices we make over the next 8 years will determine the stability of earth’s climate systems. It’s our own health and safety that are at stake. Our governments need to hear from us.

Meanwhile, here in Canada, our national emissions remain substantially higher than in 1990, and our health care systems are only just beginning to think about sustainability. Our provincial leaders do battle over the carbon “tax”. And the planet gets hotter. Less safe. Less healthy.

Keep all this in mind when you vote.

. . . constraints and forcing functions have given us great things like universal seatbelt laws, more fuel-efficient vehicles, and a recovering ozone layer. It’s time to put them to work on the drastic emissions reductions we require at this late stage of the game.

An Earth Day celebration and a Planetary Health pledge are wonderful beginnings, but the real story will be told in the ongoing actions of the entire NOSM community. We all share the calling to promote, restore, and sustain human health; we cannot, in good conscience, continue to harm the planet upon whose health all human health depends.

Two weeks ago, and a few hours after my last column came out in the Sudbury Star, I received an email from a gentleman who clearly disagrees with the basic premise of my writing and the consensus of climate scientists the world around: that climate change is happening,

Our food production systems are responsible for 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Our increasing proclivity for animal-based sources of protein is a major driver for the expansion of agricultural land and the resulting loss of forests, especially in the tropics. Our farming practices degrade the soil, and pollute and deplete our fresh water sources. Even as the population of humans continues to rise, the population of a great many of our fellow creatures is declining drastically, due to loss of or damage to their habitats. We humans might find ways to justify our derangement of the planet if in fact we were healthier for it. But alas, we are not.

Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for a multitude of lethal health conditions. Smokers are often miserably short of breath. They also look older and die younger. So it might be disturbing to learn you can download an app that converts the health impact of your air pollution exposure to the equivalent number of cigarettes smoked.