Vital Entanglements on Planet Earth. The full significance of health to political ecology

Earth system sciences are insufficient for providing political guidance on societal change as they cannot adequately grasp social barriers to transformation, such as political power claims, vested interests, and the persistence of socio-technical regimes and social practices. Mathematical models can hardly cover human behaviour and social interaction based on values. The concept of Planetary Health reaches its full potential when combined with the biopsychosocial model of health for a critical mode of knowledge integration. Each individual’s health is interrelated with social settings and the global biosphere. We should therefore regard planet Earth as a vital system of diverse species working together to stabilise its habitability.