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Better decisions with better data
With innovation and global collaboration we can tackle the major challenges of our times
Gordon G Liu, Peking University BOYA Distinguished Professor of Economics and dean, and Bernhard Schwartländer, co-chair of the Governing Board and Distinguished Research Professor of Global Health, Peking University Institute for Global Health and Development H ealth is a political choice. But these choices must be grounded in science and reliable data. Over recent decades, research has shown how deeply intertwined human well-being is with the environment: climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, land and water use, food security, socio-economic actions, and other interlinked threats. Together, these represent the full spectrum of human-driven pressures on Earth that shape
pathways linking boundary transgressions to human health are well understood – through climate, water, food and disease – but further research is needed to uncover additional pathways quantify causal mechanisms, and assess distributional impacts across regions and populations. Only then can decision makers design effective interventions to optimise the trajectories forward. This research is
both ecological and human health. At a planetary scale, the health of people, animals and ecosystems is inseparable – bound together in complex, non-linear dynamics across societies, economies and nature. Planetary health science has advanced the thinking by identifying nine planetary boundaries that define the safe operating space for humanity. Several of these boundaries have already been transgressed, while others are under critical pressure. Many
extraordinarily complex. Because interactions are
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Health: A Political Choice – The Future of Health in a Fractured World
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