PLANETARY HEALTH WEEKLY

Neither the Biodiversity Crisis nor Climate Change are hoaxes or the result of some left-wing conspiracy, whatever the absurdist wing of certain political parties would have you believe. They both need to be taken very seriously indeed. Ignoring the science is a road to disaster, especially when it is based on wilful ignorance. Nature is implacable, however inconvenient this may

While recent floods in cities around the world have raised the profile of the ‘sponge city’ concept, looking ahead perhaps the whole future of rivers should receive more attention. As with other natural features the overwhelming approach of contemporary ‘development’ up to now has been to emphasize hydro power, flood-control and navigation, while the value of biodiversity and the natural

How many people can the planet support? Call it the carrying capacity for spaceship earth. Currently there are over 8 billion (mid 2023) and we will reach 9 billion in the next 15 years. The Carrying Capacity according to studies presented in Wikipedia suggests the range is just two to four billion people. There are many estimates of how many the planet

Blowing the whistle is a shorthand phrase meaning ‘halt the action; something is wrong’. In sport it usually denotes a foul. In real life whistleblowers raise the alarm when they see powerful forces falling short of standards they have set themselves – either by breaking the law or failing to adhere to common standards. Perhaps the most celebrated – or