NEWS
Umeå University has – as the first Swedish university – signed a manifesto on planetary health initiated by the medical journal the Lancet. The manifesto calls for a social movement to support collective public health action at personal, community, national, regional, global, and planetary level. The aim is to respond to the threats to human health and wellbeing, the sustainability of our civilisation, and the natural and human-made systems. A number of international public health researchers stand behind the call.
"It’s natural for Umeå University to support this grand initiative to purposely strengthen the work with, and the prerequisites for, saving the planet and the human race. Environmental and public health issues are two of Umeå University’s strong research areas, and they rest on the basic values we work for", says Lena Gustafsson, Vice-Chancellor at Umeå University.
Behind the manifesto stands a group of researchers who – together with the chief editor of the Lancet, Richard Horton – believe that there’s a need for a global and broad movement with researchers, specialists, politicians and officials to meet the needs of public health support in all of our society. One of the manifesto’s originators is Stig Wall, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University.
"I’m very pleased that Umeå University signed the manifesto. It’s an invaluable standpoint that will be much appreciated, especially by our students. By participating in the shaping of opinion like this, and by endorsing a research initiative, the university shows its belief in the possibility of research to contribute not only to long-term changes – and in this case, there’s certainly not an eternity available", says Stig Wall.
Health at all levels
The aim of the manifesto is to gather experts and decision makers from multiple areas to influence authorities worldwide and support health at all levels of society. The effort includes not only human beings, but all life on earth that humanity depends on. According to Stig Wall, almost 8 000 people have signed the manifesto so far, including student organisations worldwide and scientific associations like the World Federation of Public Health and the International Union for Health Promotion and Education. Several Swedish organisations are on the list as well, for example, the Swedish Society of Medicine, Swedish Doctors for the Environment and Folkuniversitetet.
"Representatives of medicine and public health have a particular responsibility in this area, and health is not only a consequence of development but also a precondition. It’s very gratifying that the expression Planetary Health is now being used in different contexts, and that the awareness of the relation between human health, climate change and our planet’s health is now being acknowledged. The next step in the process is the international commission that soon is to be founded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Lancet", says Stig Wall.
Takes a stand for global health
Being the first Swedish higher education institute to sign the manifesto for global health is a confirmation of Umeå University’s strong commitment to the field, according to Lena Gustafsson.
"Another current initiative the university is backing is the project Whole Earth, operated in Umeå by students in the Umeå Association of International Affairs. It’s part of the international gathering where universities around the world work together to raise the environmental debate and the sustainability perspective amongst young people. This year’s activities culminate with a conference on September 18 in Aula Nordica", she says.
