Environmental physiotherapy and the case for multispecies justice in planetary health

ABSTRACT

Background

Global environmental change is fundamentally altering the composition and functioning of our planetary ecosystem. Effectively presenting the largest threat to the health of present and future generations, these changes and their health impacts are forcing us to think and practice healthcare in much broader terms than ever before.

Objective

In this article, we provide an early outline for a radically otherwise, yet strangely familiar, environmental physiotherapy developed through a succession of carefully developed arguments.

Discussion

We show how an underpinning belief in human exceptionalism has engendered an exploitative relationship with our natural planetary environment that has both shaped Western science and healthcare and led to our current environmental health crisis. Building on the dependence of human health on our planetary ecosystem, approaches like planetary health hold great promise for a corresponding, paradigmatic turn in healthcare. They fall short of this however, where they perpetuate anthropocentric interests and interventionist practices that have underpinned healthcare to date. Drawing on ethical and post-human philosophies we argue against human exceptionalism and for a solidarity that includes other-than-humans as the primary characteristic of planetary existence.

Conclusion

Building on this foundation, we provide an early outline for a radically otherwise, yet strangely familiar, environmental physiotherapy, grounded in ecological awareness, multispecies justice, and a range of consonant practices of passivity and accompaniment, conceived as an alternative to the commonplace interventionism of healthcare.

KEYWORDS:

• Planetary health
• environmental physiotherapy
• multispecies justice
• climate change
• environmental philosophy
• environmental ethics

Disclosure Statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Notes

¹ We use the term environmental physiotherapy in reference to the current healthcare milieu. Later in the text we use environmental physical therapies to embrace a more diverse set of post-disciplinary practices and approaches.