As a population we are starting to learn how our planet impacts us and in particular our health. Climate change affects the social and environmental determinants of health – things like clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter are all vital to our survival. With increasing pollution we are seeing increased respiratory and cardiovascular disease, injuries and premature deaths from extreme weather events, changes in our food access, water-borne illnesses, and their associated mental health issues. When put together these contribute to the death of around 13 million people each year.

When we look at our climate we see that major floods have more than doubled, severe storms have risen by 40% and there have been major increases in droughts, wildfires and heatwaves and in the last 20 years climate related disasters have doubled.

Now When it comes to our health – we have some real challenges – there are infectious diseases like Covid-19 which came from animals, food safety challenges when we think of wet markets around the world, and we are even seeing an increase antimicrobial resistance menaing our antibiotics can’t do their job – all of these examples provide increasing evidence that human, plant and animal, and environment health are connected in more ways than we ever imagined. So much so, that global examples abound of disruptions in one species or ecosystem can reverberate throughout the rest of the “system,” even half a world away. That’s why today we are going to investigate a philosophy called “One Health” and with us is an expert in the field Dr. Cate Dewey. She is a professor, the vice president (academic) at the University of Geulph and a driving force between the One Health program at their university. She joined me to share more about one health and what it means for us and the planet.