Planetary well-being

Abstract

Tensions between the well-being of present humans, future humans, and nonhuman nature manifest in social protests and political and academic debates over the future of Earth. The increasing consumption of natural resources no longer increases, let alone equalises, human well-being, but has led to the current ecological crisis. While the crisis has been acknowledged, it is often approached in human-centred terms, with framings that limit the moral worth of nonhuman nature to its contribution to human well-being. We derive and propose the concept of planetary well-being to recognise the moral considerability of both human and nonhuman well-being, and to promote transdisciplinary, cross-cultural discourse for addressing ecological and social crises and for promoting societal and cultural transformation. Conceptually, we shift focus in well-being from individuals to Earth system and ecosystem processes that underlie all well-being. Planetary well-being is a state where the integrity of Earth system and ecosystem processes remains unimpaired to a degree that species and populations can persist to the future and organisms have the opportunity to achieve well-being. After grounding and introducing planetary well-being, we shortly discuss how it can be measured and reflect upon its potential as a bridging concept between different worldviews.

Planetary activism at the end of the world: Feminist and posthumanist imaginaries beyond Man

“…'Planetary feel' resonates also with Lorde's (2007Lorde's ( [1984: 25) and Holmes' (2021: 238) claims of the importance of embracing experiences and feelings as sources of knowledge, as well as with recent discussions on planetary ethics, such as the concept of 'planetary well-being', which seeks an alternative for the idea of sustainable development and elevates nonhuman nature as equal with the human (Kortetmäki, 2021). All these discussions are intertwined with the transformative planetary thinking and planetary activism that we propose as inspiration for radical, ethical, and political transformation.…”

Social Policy in a Climate Emergency Context: Towards an Ecosocial Research Agenda

“…A relational conceptualization of human wellbeing is one step towards sustainability (Helne and Hirvilammi, 2015). It acknowledges that people are profoundly dependent on ecosystems: they are not separate from nature and cannot survive without its processes, such as the biodiversity of flora and fauna (Kortetmäki et al ., 2021; Reid et al ., 2005). Biodiversity is an important factor in wellbeing because the loss of natural microbial diversity is associated with unhealthy human microbiota and causes a variety of health problems (see Ruokolainen et al ., 2017).…”

Bienestar enactivo: un programa triaxial transdisciplinar

“…Asimismo, hay factores corporeizados cuyas relaciones con el bienestar están siendo investigados, como el nervio vago (Wilkie et al, 2022) y los genes (Luhmann y Intelisano, 2018). Más aún, en distintos ámbitos se habla del bienestar de los animales no humanos (Broom, 1986;Korte et al, 2007;Webb et al, 2019) y los ecosistemas (Kortetmäki et al, 2021;Le Quang, 2013). Finalmente, es claro en la literatura que se necesitan herramientas teóricas para comprender la diferencia entre el bienestar de un infante, un adulto y un adulto mayor (Alexandrova, 2017), así como el bienestar de personas con discapacidades (Amundson, 2022) y enfermedades (Cacho-Díaz et al, 2023).…”