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Nature boosts human health, yet environmental damage now harms human well-being.

Planetary Health links human and environmental health and calls for global education reform.

Teaching it requires systems thinking, tackling misinformation, and managing student anxiety.

Education must drive behavior change and prepare learners for complex, inequitable tradeoffs.

by Hunter Gehlbach, Ph.D.

Below the surface of our Earth Day celebrations lies a strange paradox. On the one hand, the Earth makes us healthier. A growing body of research shows how spending time in nature improves human health, resilience, and well-being. On the other hand, we have degraded the natural world to the point that the planet’s health is suffering, so now the planet is making us less healthy.

Planetary Health is a burgeoning multidisciplinary research field and a social movement. It aims to understand and solve this paradox by changing our consumption habits to improve the health of Earth’s systems for the sake of our collective health. Many disciplines contribute to this goal, but the role of education is pivotal. How can educators facilitate a global population’s understanding of the complex connections between the planet’s health and human health so that learners can craft solutions before it is too late?

Such a daunting, urgent challenge will require infusing core Planetary Health concepts into a myriad of educational opportunities. An initial step entails embracing the fact that we are all teachers and learners in this context. Traditional teachers can connect their content areas to Planetary Health. Instructors in informal learning settings can embrace experiential learning activities that vividly illustrate the connection between the planet’s health and human health. Those who educate through roles like journalist, non-profit leader, parent, and policymaker can relay personal stories about why the planet’s health is so important to them—for instance, how declining biodiversity impacts production of medicines can be taught in a traditional high school biology class, as part of medical consultations with patients, or on a healthcare podcast for seniors.

In addition to the intimidating scope of this global Planetary Health education campaign, the signature features of the subject matter differ from traditional subjects on multiple dimensions. Beyond the global audience of learners, the psychology of Planetary Health education requires navigating tensions that will require a wholly new approach to teaching.

First, understanding planetary health requires thinking about the complexities of interconnected systems rather than simple cause-effect logic. Take the example of how overfertilizing crops in one area can kill fish in ponds miles away. This kind of “systems thinking” requires learners to mentally associate multiple, interrelated factors operating in distinct eco-systems to understand that, for example, marketing and advertising campaigns often convince farmers to use excessive amounts of fertilizer which runs off into ponds during heavy rains, catalyzing algae blooms at certain times of year which, in turn, consume the pond’s oxygen so completely that the fish suffocate.

Second, in an age of rampant misinformation, Planetary Health educators face skepticism from some learners. Few math teachers must face students who argue that the quadratic formula is a hoax. Yet, those teaching topics such as climate change or biodiversity loss may face students who question whether the planet’s health is currently being harmed or is a concern worth prioritizing.

Third, while some teachers face learners with test anxiety, the existential anxiety intrinsic to Planetary Health requires substantially more delicacy. Students should be worried about the state of our planet; educators would be guilty of malpractice to pretend otherwise. Yet, reminding learners of the bleak picture too often or too harshly may cause some learners to curl up into the fetal position and disengage.

Why Education Is Important

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Emotionally withdrawing is particularly problematic because a fourth trademark characteristic of Planetary Health education involves the role of behavioral change. Few traditional courses ask students to change their personal actions thanks to what they learned in class. By contrast, Planetary Health educators view behavior change as a crucial educational outcome. Furthermore, the biggest changes will require collective action. Thus, educators need to cultivate students’ talents as collaborators.

Finally, the nature of Planetary Health requires coping with the psychological discomfort of hard tradeoffs: the world needs rapid solutions; its problems are complex; and many solutions risk perpetuating or deepening existing inequities. For example, AI technology could substantially reduce traffic using intelligent cameras at stoplights to reduce congestion—thereby reducing pollution and energy consumption. Implement these new traffic systems before they are ready, however, and unintended consequences, like the cameras failing to see small children, seem inevitable; implement them too slowly and pollution erodes human health further.

Yet, the trade-off here is trickier than balancing urgency versus complexity; equity issues further complicate any proposed solution. AI infrastructure consumes tremendous water and energy resources. This consumption often comes at the expense of communities that desperately need these resources but lack the political power to advocate for their needs. Preparing students to navigate the costs and benefits of these tradeoffs represents another daunting task for Planetary Health educators.

To put the planet and humanity on a new, sustainable trajectory to a healthier future requires a historically unprecedented, all-hands-on-deck educational campaign. However, as a subject, Planetary Health poses unique tensions. Educators will need to think through the psychological dimensions of how to help learners embrace systems thinking, combat misinformation, regulate their emotions, take strategic (collective) actions, and navigate hard tradeoffs.

Although traditional subjects may feature a couple of these traits, few require teachers to master all of them. As a result, we will make mistakes as we navigate this tricky terrain. But a delay in committing to a global Planetary Health education initiative is the one mistake we cannot afford to make. Earth Day represents a symbolic opportunity to start addressing education’s most important paradox. Our planet’s health depends on it. So does ours.

Hunter Gehlbach is the faculty co-director of education at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health as well as a professor and director of the Ph.D. program at the Johns Hopkins School of Education. His research interests include Planetary Health and the social side of schooling.

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