Environmental Health Behavior, Chapter 5: Environmental health behavior as a unifying concept for public health and planetary health

This chapter includes a brief overview of the historical development of public health and the emergence of the planetary health movement. Since the 1960s, human behavior has been central to public health concerns and functions. Emergent global challenges, namely climate changes, global warming, population growth, and increased migration dynamics, require revisiting previously proposed broader public concepts and a shift from a traditional public health framework to a holistic, planetary health perspective, recognizing the intricate relationships between human health, ecosystems, and the environment on a global scale, and emphasizing the need to tackle environmental crises, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion, for the betterment of global health. This shift also implies a reconceptualization of health behaviors (and respective mechanisms of change) into environmental health behaviors. Environmental health behavior is not merely an extension of the health behavior concept. It emerges as a crucial link between public and planetary health, entailing the promotion of behaviors that simultaneously benefit human health and ecosystems. It recognizes the importance of human actions in shaping health outcomes and ecosystem resilience. Creating a synergy between public health principles, planetary health objectives, and environmental health behaviors is essential for building a sustainable future where human well-being and environmental health are mutually reinforced.