Category Archives: Biodiversity

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Planetary Health, Sustainable Development

“Dune” as a Mirror for Our Climate Crisis

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Currently, Dune 2 is playing in our theaters. In a time when the climate crisis is becoming increasingly urgent, the science fiction world of Dune provides insight into the challenges our planet faces. At first glance, Frank Herbert’s story from 1965 about power, betrayal, and survival on the desert planet Arrakis seems to have little in common with our contemporary environmental issues. However, Dune is not just an epic adventure but also a parable about ecology, scarcity, and human interaction with the environment.

The ecological crisis on Arrakis, a planet where water is scarcer than gold, serves as a mirror for our world, where the effects of climate change are becoming more tangible. Arrakis, or Dune, is a battleground for limited resources, with the precious ‘spice’ at stake. This fictional element, essential for space travel, power, and life extension, serves as a metaphor for our own global competition for water, food, and energy. The conflict over the spice in Dune reflects the societal unrest we now see due to climate change and resource scarcity.

On the other hand, Dune shows how important adaptation and resilience are. The indigenous Fremen have masterfully adapted to their environment, with innovative methods for water conservation that are essential for their survival. Their lifestyle illustrates the need for our society to find sustainable solutions for environmental challenges such as water management and agricultural practices, adapted to changing climate conditions.

Dune also calls for a deeper ecological awareness and the necessity of a shared responsibility for the well-being of our planet. The aspirations of some characters to transform Arrakis into a more livable world could be seen as the contemporary movements for climate action. This saga also serves as a warning. It shows the destructive paths humanity can take when power, greed, and shortsightedness dominate our relationship with nature.

Thus, Dune is more than a story about interstellar politics and mystical powers. It was in the 1960s, but now more than ever, an urgent call for reflection on our own world. It invites us to critically reconsider the way we live, consume, and interact with our planet. But it also offers hope by showing that change is possible, that through collaboration, innovation, and respect for our planet, a more sustainable and just future is within reach.

Biodiversity, circular economy, Climate Change, Green Deal, Planetary Health, Sustainable Development

Regenerative Economics for Planetary Health and Thrivability: The European Green Deal

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This policy brief explains the importance of regenerative economic principles for achieving climate neutrality by 2050. Furthermore, we offer a perspective on why mainstream economic systems are unsustainable by design; as they are a legacy of the earlier mechanistic paradigm of the Industrial Age dominated by Newtonian sciences and Darwinian economics. We will explore how a mechanistic approach for societal and human development leads to economic growth models that operate at the cost of vital planetary boundaries and social ceilings; as such, undermining the planetary health conditions on which all life on Earth depends.

Furthermore, we offer a complete overview of the circular economy principles and explain why circularity principles need to expand through regenerative principles in order to achieve the transition to post-carbon economies. We also emphasise the importance of the human factor in sustainability transitions which tends to be undervalued in many of the mainstream circular economy models.

Yet, more fundamentally, we address how the Circular Economy Action Plan needs to go further by addressing the underlying economic growth models and their systemic barriers. To support policymakers and sustainability leaders, this brief includes several Living Systems Protocols from the EARTHwise Constitution for a Planetary Civilization to explore how to transition to regenerative post-carbon economies where growth is decoupled from use of resources. In particular, how to shift economic design as extractive GDP growth machines within a free-market environment to economies as complex living systems embedded within vital planetary and social carrying capacities.

Finally, we conclude with reflections for a larger global vision based on collective so-called thrivability for people, planet and future generations. We invite decision-makers, influencers, thought leaders and think tanks to embrace a planetary health and thrivability perspective, which goes further than including natural capitals and ecosystem services as costs and assets in economic models.

Read the full Policy Brief (Chapter 5) here: Smitsman, A. & Martens, P. (2024). Regenerative Economics for Planetary Health and Thrivability: The European Green Deal. In: Special Collection Policy Briefs: Circular Economy. Studio Europa, Maastricht University.

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Biodiversity, Climate Change, Integrated Assessment

Participatory Design of Urban Green Spaces to Improve Residents’ Health

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Urban green space (UGS) has important impacts on human health, but an integrated participatory approach to UGS design for improved residents’ health has been lacking to date. The aim of our study was to develop and evaluate such a novel approach to address this gap. The approach was developed following guiding principles from the literature and tested with groups of children and elderly as participants in two neighborhoods of Maastricht (The Netherlands) with a low score in economic and health indicators.

The novel aspects of the approach are the inclusion of both positive and negative health effects, the combination of resident self-assessment and model-based assessment of the health effects of UGS designs, and the use of maps to visualize UGS designs and health effects. The participant-generated UGS designs resulted in a considerable (up to fourfold) self-assessed increase in the use of the UGSs for meeting, stress reduction, and leisure-based physical activity as compared to the current situation.

The model-assessed positive and negative health effects of the participant-generated UGS designs were limited: heat stress slightly decreased (by 0.1 °C), active transport slightly increased (by 30 m per day), and the perceived unsafety slightly increased (8%). The effects on unattractive views, air pollution, tick bite risk, and traffic unsafety were negligible.

The major strength of this approach is that it combines active participation of residents in UGS (re)design with assessment of the health effects of these UGS designs. While in other participatory approaches to UGS design, it often remains unclear whether the resulting designs represent an improvement in terms of health, our combination of computer model-based assessment and a participatory process produced clear outcomes regarding the health benefits and use of UGS designs. A major recommendation for improvement is to involve decision makers already in the initial steps of the approach.

Read the full paper here: Oosterbroek, B., de Kraker, J., Akkermans, S., Esser, P., Martens, P. (2024). Participatory Design of Urban Green Spaces to Improve Residents’ Health. Land, 13, 88. https://doi.org/10.3390/land13010088

Biodiversity, Climate Change, interdisciplinary, Sustainable Development

Teaching and Learning for Sustainability Science in a Rapidly Warming World

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We are in an era of unprecedented ecological and social crises. Human activity has led to the transgression of six of the nine planetary boundaries—including the novel entities boundary, which refers to geological changes that could have large-scale impacts that threaten the integrity of the Earth system processes . This environmental degradation has driven one in five species to extinction.

Further, warming-induced extreme weather events, such as drought, wildfires and flooding, have increased in number and intensity, resulting in widespread suffering and loss of life. Despite political commitments, most governments are failing to take the necessary actions to ensure that the global average temperatures do not surpass 1.5° warming above pre-industrial levels. Alarmingly, global fossil CO2 emissions continued to increase in 2021 and 2022 after dipping by 5.4% in 2020 due to widespread COVID-19 lockdowns. Furthermore, 2015 to 2022 were the eight warmest since the instrumental record began in 1850, despite 3 consecutive years of a cooling La Niña.

The window to control global warming is rapidly closing. On the current trajectory, humankind is set to cause an average temperature rise of 2.8° by the end of the century. In this context, the work of sustainability scientists is becoming increasingly important and challenging. In light of this reality, we argue that we must reconsider the core tenants of transdisciplinary sustainability science. To this end, we propose a model for teaching and learning sustainability as an example of how we might adapt our approach to the pressure of the contemporary context. In a novel way, we model transdisciplinarity. This paper is the product of the Education in a Warming World Research Consortium, supported by Worldwide Universities Network. The consortium comprises university academics with broad expertise in education, sociology, climate change, science communication, health, sustainability, and human behaviour. Our group members share a commitment to transdisciplinary work dedicated to understanding the evolving role of education in this era of rapid climatic change and overlapping socio-ecological crises.

Read the full paper here: Kelly, O., White, P., Butera, F., Illingworth, S., Martens, P., Huynen, M., Bailey, S., Schuitema, G. & Cowman, S. (2023).  A transdisciplinary model for teaching and learning for sustainability science in a rapidly warming world. Sustainability Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-023-01407-z

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Human Health

Health Impacts and Benefits of Urban Green Space 

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Both urbanization and climate change can be expected to aggravate several major human health problems.  An example is mental health: when urbanization increases, incidence rates of psychosis and depression also rise. Other relevant health problems in this respect are those associated with heat stress, air pollution and vector-transmitted infections.

A common characteristic of these urban health problems is that they are significantly affected by urban spatial design. A major element of urban spatial design is urban greenspace (UGS), which is more and more seen as a leverage point to address such urban health challenges.

In this paper, we present a new model, with the aim to address the shortcomings of existing methods and tools, and to meet the needs of urban spatial planners for quantitative, spatially explicit assessment of both the beneficial and detrimental impacts of UGS on human health. The model, named Urban-EcoMATCH (Urban Ecosystems Mapping and Assessment Tool of Costs and Benefits for Health), is applied it to the city of Maastricht (The Netherlands) with a (multi)hotspot analysis for five major urban health issues.: ‘Unattractive views’ (contributing to, e.g., psychological stress), ‘Heat stress’ (contributing to, e.g., heat stroke), ‘Air pollution’ (contributing to, e.g., respiratory diseases), ‘Perceived unsafety’ (contributing to, e.g., psychological stress), and Tick-bite risk’ (contributing to, e.g., Lyme disease).

With the model we were able to identify the hotspots, the areas within a city where urban design-related health problems are the largest. The hotspot analysis did not only provide concrete results for a specific city, but also generated more general insights into which spatial design-related health issues often occur together, and how greening strategies could reduce health burdens and/or enhance health benefits in these hotspots by paying attention to design aspects, especially to UGS type and location.

Read the full paper here: Oosterbroek, B., de Kraker, J., Huynen, M., Martens, P. & Verhoeven, K. (2023). Assessment of green space benefits and burdens for urban health with spatial modeling, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 86, 128023, doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2023.128023.

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Human Health, indigenous worldview, interdisciplinary, Planetary Health, scientivism, Sustainable Development

Planetary Health: The Recipe for a Sustainable Future

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The concept of Planetary Health is too human-oriented. The emphasis here is mainly on the consequences for our health through global environmental disturbances. Later definitions are already better, with the focus more on the health of our planet and the realization that human health ultimately depends on the health of the planet. For example, climate change and the decrease in biodiversity are unhealthy for the earth and everything that lives on it, including humans. However, the field of Planetary Health is more than that. It is not only the realization that everything is connected, but also the realization that it is not nearly enough to keep the planet ‘as it is’. Positive, regenerative development must take place to keep the planet and everything on it healthy. This also includes a different way of dealing with our earth, a change of perspective. When we respect our planet, we respect life, we respect ourselves. That is also what I believe Planetary Health stands for. Taking sustainability to the next level!

Read, watch or listen to my inaugural address regarding the Chair Planetary Health below:

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Human Health, interdisciplinary, Planetary Health, scientivism, Sustainable Development

Planetary Health: Taking sustainability to the next level

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After being a professor of Sustainable Development for more than 18 years, I am proud to let you know that – as of today – I will hold the chair Planetary Health at Maastricht University.

For me, Planetary Health has always been the foundation of sustainable development. However, the sustainability debate has been hijacked in recent years by industry and governments. Their view regarding sustainable development significantly has been subordinate to the dogma of economic growth with little regard for planetary health. How shortsighted this is, has been illustrated by the various outbreaks of zoonotic diseases (with corona as one of the latest examples), our current climate crises and the global decline of biodiversity. These are just some examples, but it is increasingly clear that our own well-being is closely connected with the health of the planet on which we live.

It is not nearly enough to keep the planet ‘as is’. There has to be a positive, regenerative development in order to make the planet, and everything on it, healthy. If we respect our planet, we respect life, we respect ourselves. That is also what the new chair Planetary Health stands for. Taking sustainability to the next level!

Animal well-being, Biodiversity, Dierzaamheid, Sustainable Development, wildlife

Sustainable Development Matters for Animals Too

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This document contains an open letter, also published as a Commentary in the inaugural issue of CABI One Health, followed by a list of authors and other signatories (I am not an author of this text, but did sign it). Researchers and other experts in relevant fields are welcome to add your signature via this form. The list below will be periodically updated to reflect new signatures. If you have questions, comments, or media inquiries about this open letter, you can write to animalsandSDGs@gmail.com.

Animals matter for sustainable development, and sustainable development matters for animals. As the One Health framework reminds us, human, non-human, and environmental health are linked (Zinsstag, 2020), and many experts agree that every Sustainable Development Goal interacts with animals in some way (e.g. Keeling et al., 2019).  

Yet animal welfare – that is, the mental and physical state of animals – remains neglected in sustainable development governance – that is, the goals and policies that governments are pursuing to promote sustainable development. For example, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development comprises 17 goals and 169 targets on topics ranging from hunger and poverty to peace and justice (United Nations, 2015). But while several of these targets focus on conservation of biodiversity, species, and habitats, none references animal welfare.  

In June 2022, governments will convene for the UN Stockholm+50 Conference, which marks 50 years of international decision making on environmental issues. At this conference, governments have an opportunity to recognize the intrinsic value of animal welfare and the links between animal welfare and sustainable development, and to aspire to harm animals less and benefit them more as part of sustainable development governance. We call on governments to take these steps for the sake of human and non-human animals alike.

Animals matter for sustainable development. While its origins remain uncertain, COVID-19 has reminded us that industries like industrial animal agriculture and the wildlife trade not only harm and kill many animals per year but also contribute to global health and environmental threats that imperil us all (Roe et al., 2020).

For example, industrial animal agriculture keeps domesticated animals in cramped conditions and administers antibiotics to stimulate growth and suppress disease, contributing to infectious disease emergence and antibiotic resistance (Silbergeld et al., 2008; Roe et al., 2020). Animal agriculture is also a leading contributor to climate change, and it generally consumes much more land and water and produces much more waste and pollution than plant-based alternatives (Poore and Nemecek, 2018).   

Similarly, the wildlife trade often keeps non-domesticated animals in high densities, either by capturing them from the wild or by raising them in captivity. This practice again contributes to infectious disease emergence (Karesh et al., 2005). Many methods of capturing animals also damage the environment; for instance, industrial fishing contributes to biodiversity loss, seabed damage, and plastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems, among other harms (Pusceddu et al., 2014; Thushari and Senevirathna, 2020).  

Sustainable development matters for animals. Scientists increasingly accept that many animals are sentient (e.g. Low et al., 2012; Birch et al., 2021), and ethicists increasingly accept that sentient beings matter for their own sakes (e.g. Regan, 1995; Singer, 1995). It follows that humans should consider the interests of many animals when deciding how to treat them.  

The stakes for animals in international environmental policy are high. Industrial animal agriculture and the wildlife trade not only harm and kill hundreds of billions of non-humans per year directly. They also harm and kill countless non-humans indirectly, by increasing disease outbreaks like bird flu and COVID-19, extreme weather events like fires and floods, and social and economic disruptions like lockdowns and supply-chain breakdowns that increase the risk of human violence and neglect towards non-humans.  

More generally, environmental changes like climate change, ocean acidification, and air, water, and land pollution are not only reducing biodiversity but also harming and killing countless animals by making it impossible for them to breathe, eat, drink, or otherwise survive. Some mitigation and adaptation strategies – ranging from the intensification of meat production systems to the construction of cities and transportation systems without appropriate safeguards – risk harming and killing animals unnecessarily as well. 

These links between human, non-human, and environmental health all matter for sustainable development governance. Humans have a responsibility to consider the interests of everyone impacted by human activity. In particular, humans should harm animals less and benefit them more as part of sustainable development governance, for instance by reducing exploitation of animals as part of pandemic and climate change mitigation efforts and by increasing assistance for animals as part of adaptation efforts (Sebo, 2022).  

Fortunately, governments are making progress. For example, in 2020, several UN bodies established the One Health High Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) to provide guidance on ‘issues raised by the interface of human, animal and ecosystem health’ (FAO et al., 2021). And in 2022, Environment Ministers at the fifth UN Environment Assembly requested the UN Environment Programme to produce a report to improve our understanding of the nexus between animal welfare, the environment, and sustainable development (UNEA, 2022).

Fifty years after the adoption of the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment, governments have the opportunity to build on this progress. They can:

  • Recognize the intrinsic value of animal welfare and the relationship between animal welfare and sustainable development in Stockholm+50 outcome documents and subsequent international sustainable development outcome documents.
  • Strengthen and broaden the One Health activities of the OHHLEP and other relevant entities to better reflect the value of improving animal health and welfare not only for the sake of humans but also for the sake of the animals themselves, as well as consider animal health and welfare in the impact assessments that shape policy decisions.
  • Support policies that benefit humans and non-humans alike, including informational policies that educate the public about human, animal, and environmental health and well-being; financial and regulatory policies that incentivize co-beneficial practices; and just transition policies that support vulnerable populations.

We call on governments to start including animal welfare in sustainable development governance now, towards a healthier, more resilient, and more sustainable world for all.

Animal well-being, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Green Deal, Sustainable Development

The earth is running away from us

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Fireplace Talk on Environmental Policy and Regulation

The atmosphere is warming and the climate is changing with each passing year. One million of the eight million species on the planet are at risk of being lost. Forests and oceans are being polluted and destroyed. However  ‘animals’, ‘nature’ and ‘sustainability’ are not often mentioned together in Environmental Policies and Regulations. The reason is likely to be found in the fact that the sustainability debate has been hijacked in recent years by industry and governments. Their view regarding sustainable development significantly has been subordinate to the dogma of economic growth with little regard for animal welfare and concerns for nature.

For example, The European Commission speaks about protecting Europe’s natural capital and resources. However, we also need to acknowledge the value of nature for its own sake, instead as a mere means for human flourishing. Although we as humans may be privileged in our capacity to respect autonomy and flourishing, the autonomy and flourishing that we must respect is not limited to humans. Moreover, protecting Europe’s nature for it’s own sake is perfectly compatible with human flourishing. Perhaps it is even true that in the long term we will show incapable of protecting nature as a resource for human wellbeing, without at the same time recognizing nature’s intrinsic value.

This is the third event in the Fireplace Talks on the 30th Anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty, organized by UM Campus Brussels on 12th January 2022 from 18.30-19.30 (online). Our guest speakers for the talk are Maastricht University Professor Dr. Pim Martens, and the Executive Director of the Greenpeace European Unit, Dr. Jorgo Riss.  Register here.

Animal well-being, Biodiversiteit, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Dierzaamheid, Duurzaamheid, Gezondheid, Human Health, interdisciplinary, Klimaatverandering, Sustainable Development, Wetenschap

KNAW commissie Planetary Health

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Vereerd lid te zijn van de KNAW commissie Planetary Health die gaat inventariseren welke wetenschappelijke kennis er nodig is op het gebied van planetary health en welke prioriteiten voor kennisontwikkeling er liggen voor Nederland.

Planetary health is de interdisciplinaire benadering van het verband tussen de gezondheid en welzijn van mens en dier en de ‘gezondheid’ van de aarde. Het gaat daarbij om klimaatverandering en verlies van biodiversiteit maar bijvoorbeeld ook om grootschalige milieuvervuiling, ontbossing, erosie en andere door de mens veroorzaakte veranderingen die gezondheidsrisico’s met zich meebrengen. Die risico’s zijn onder meer infectieziekten, problemen met voedsel- en drinkwatervoorziening, migratie en conflict en mentale gezondheid.

Voor meer informatie zie KNAW website

English

Honored to be a member of the KNAW (The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) Planetary Health committee, which will inventorize the scientific knowledge needed in the field of planetary health and the priorities for knowledge development for the Netherlands.

Planetary health is the interdisciplinary approach to the link between the health and well-being of human and non-human animals and the ‘health’ of the earth. This concerns climate change and loss of biodiversity, but also, for example, large-scale environmental pollution, deforestation, erosion and other man-made changes that entail health risks. Those risks include infectious diseases, problems with food and drinking water supplies, migration and conflict, and mental health.

For more information see KNAW website