One Health & Environmental

Literacy

Alison Robbins, MS, DVMTufts Center for Conservation

MedicineTufts Environmental Literacy

InstituteMay 20, 2013

Overview of One Health

• Frame the subject of one health through a review of global assessments of ecosystem health and human health

• Review definitions and priorities• Review concepts of ecosystem services

and planetary boundaries Anthropocene

• MEA, MDG, Sustainability Development Goals

One Health• What is it?

• Recognition that human health,

animal health and ecosystem health

are inextricably linked

Slide Courtesy G. Kaufman

One Health

One Health?

Slide Courtesy G. Kaufman

Many Competing Terms

• Global Health• Ecohealth• One Health• Public Health• Conservation Medicine

Global Health and Ecohealth

• Global health- a study and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide(Wikipedia)-measures health outcomes

• Ecohealth-An emerging field of study researching how changes in the earth’s ecosystems affect human health focusing on participation, gender and social equity, systems thinking, and research to action

One Health Initiative -AVMA

• The One Health concept is a worldwide strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment.

http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/

Conservation Medicine @ Tufts

Conservation medicine focuses on health relationships occurring at the interface of humans, animals, and the environment, and seeks to develop and apply health management practices, policies and programs that sustain biodiversity and protect the ecosystems essential to animal and human health.Slide Courtesy G.

Kaufman

One HealthWe don’t all have the same priorities…

ECOSYSTEM HEALTH#1 Environmental health#2 Human health#3 Animal health

CONSERVATION MEDICINE#1 Wildlife health #2 Environmental health#3 Human health

PUBLIC HEALTH#1 Human health #2 Animal health #3 Environmental health

Slide Courtesy G. Kaufman

Global Health Assessment• Environmental Health

– Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

– Links ecosystem health to attaining human development goals

• Animal Health– Livestock and

agriculture– Biological Diversity -

MEA– Wildlife

• Human Health– Millennium

Development Goals

Indicators of GlobalHuman Health

• Indicators of human well being and health across the planet – Infant and child mortality, Extreme hunger– Access to education,

• Millennium Development Goals –– Eight international development goals

established in 2000 by the Millennium summit at the United Nations

– Effort to achieve these goals across globe by 2015

United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Findings

http://millenniumassessment.org/en/SlidePresentations.html

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA 2005)

• 2005 report synthesizing 1000 scientists analysis of state of the earths ecosystems

• Report concludes that human activity has a large and escalating impact world ecosystems

• Ecosystem life support system and ecosystem services are in serious decline and at risk to non-linear change (tipping points)

• Unless addressed will substantially effect human well being and all life

• http://www.unep.org/maweb/en/index.aspx

Ecosystem ServicesLife and humankind depend on resources and processes that are supplied by ecosystems and are grouped into 4 broad categories:

• Regulating Services• Supporting Services

• Provisioning Services• Cultural Services

MEA 2005

Constituents ofHuman Well Being

Consequences of ecosystem change effect human well-being; 4 broad categories:

• Security• Basic Material for Good life• Health• Good Social Relations

• Freedom of Choice and Actions- opportunity to be and to achieve what an individual values doing and being

MEA 2005

MEA 2005

MEA 2005

MA Framework

Direct Drivers

Indirect Drivers

EcosystemServices

Human Well-being

Direct Drivers of Change Changes in land use Species introduction or

removal Technology adaptation and

use External inputs (e.g.,

irrigation) Resource consumption Climate change Natural physical and

biological drivers (e.g., volcanoes)

Indirect Drivers of Change

Demographic Economic (globalization,

trade, market and policy framework)

Sociopolitical (governance and institutional framework)

Science and Technology Cultural and Religious

Human Well-being and Poverty Reduction

Basic material for a good life Health Good Social Relations Security Freedom of choice and

action

Unprecedented change in structure and function of ecosystems

More land was converted to cropland in the 30 years after 1950 than in the 150 years between 1700 and

1850.

Cultivated Systems in 2000 cover 25% of Earth’s terrestrial surface

(Defined as areas where at least 30% of the landscape is in croplands, shifting cultivation, confined livestock production, or freshwater aquaculture)

Changes to ecosystems have provided substantial benefits Food production

has more than doubled since 1960

Food production per capita has grown

Food price has fallen

Unprecedented change: Ecosystems

Gulf of Mexico nutrient runoff commons.wikimedia.org  

Unprecedented Ecosystem Change (MEA 2005)

• Amount of water in reservoirs quadrupled since 1960

• Withdrawals from rivers and lakes doubled since 1960

• Intercepted Continental Runoff: 3-6 times as much water in reservoirs as in natural rivers

Three Gorges dam China www.industrytap.com 

Unprecedented Ecosystem Change (MEA 2005)

• 20% of the world’s coral reefs were lost and 20% degraded in the last several decades

savethecorals.wordpress.com 

Significant and largely irreversible Biodiversity

Loss• Threatened with extinction: 30% amphibians, 12% birds, 23% Mammals, 3% plants.

• 6th extinctions –on order of mass extinctions

Ecosystem Services Changes

• Provisioning service increases– Crop production– Livestock– Aquaculture

• Provisioning decrease– Capture fisheries– Genetic resources– Biochemicals/

medicine– Fresh water

• Regulating and cultural services -reductions– Air quality

regulation– Climate regulation

local– Erosion– pollination

Degradation of ecosystem services is a significant barrier to achievement of MDGsMany of the regions facing the greatest challenges in achieving the 2015 targets

coincide with regions facing the greatest problems of ecosystem degradation Although socioeconomic factors will play a primary role in achieving many of the

MDGs, targets are unlikely to be met without improvement in ecosystem management for goals such as: Poverty Reduction Hunger

· All four MA scenarios project progress but at rates far slower than needed to attain the MDG target. The improvements are slowest in the regions in which the problems are greatest: South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa

Child mortality· Three of the MA scenarios project reductions in child undernourishment of

between 10% and 60% but undernourishment increases by 10% in one. Disease

· Progress toward this Goal is achieved in three scenarios, but in one scenario the health and social conditions for the North and South further diverge, exacerbating health problems in many low-income regions

Environmental Sustainability including access to water

Anthropocene Epoch• Epoch- Formal time boundary often

marked upheavals in Earth history through fossil record

• Scale of human driven environmental change– Mega cities– Chemical and biological effects– Rates of biological extinctions 100 – 1000x

equivalent to earths 6th extinction• Beginning with the industrial revolution

within Epoch of Holocene

Anthropocene Epoch

NASA

Planetary Boundaries –

Rockstrom et al, Science 2009 Stockholm Resilience.org

How do we change course?• First a recognition that

– “Business as usual” projected scenarios are grim

– planetary boundaries can provide a framework for safe operating zones

– Unique moment in time with world population, energy and food production, Global health advances and technology

How do we change course?• Change is difficult

• With most aspects of change a shift of attitude is needed

• A paradigm shift - One Health agenda

Paradigm Shift-• New paradigm for human endeavors

• Innovation coupled with the new mindset lead to transformative actions and outcomes

• Collaboration on a global scale

Sustainable Development Goals

linking poverty eradication to protection of Earth’s life support systems

Sustainable development goals for people and planet. Nature, 495: 305-307. (21 March 2013)

Griggs et al 2013: Nature 495; 305-307

Millennium Sustainability Goals

• Grigg et al -Integrate into Millennium Development goals for human health

• Paradigm shift for all governments across developed and undeveloped world

• Road map for educators and OH practitioners: Healthy and productive ecosystems

• Environmental literacy

TELI -A Step Forward Together

• Educate the educators- knowledge gaps in environmental health are vast

• Work with and inform global leaders• Breakdown social barriers to sharing

information and changing practices• Learn from successes – MDG, share

experiences

Take the next step forward- Begin to realize the

extraordinary potential of interdisciplinary

collaboration in Global One Health

TELI -A Step Forward Together

• Gretchen Kaufman• Antje Danielson• Joann Lindenmeyer• Mark Pokras• Mike McGuill• Helen Amuguni• Flo Tseng• Elena Nauvoma • Bryan Windmiller• MCM Students

Thanks to TuftsOne Health Community

• Master’s in Conservation Medicine Program

• Tufts Institute for the Environment

• Fletcher School –Center for International Environmental Research and Policy (CIERP)

• Tufts Programs in Public Health

• Freidman School of Nutrition• Dept. of Infectious Disease

and Global Health• USAID RESPOND project-

capacity building