Sociological Perspectives on Planetary Health: Understanding Human-Environmental Relationships for Sustainable Futures

This study will explore the interface between human society and the health of the planet, with an emphasis on how social behaviors, cultural values, and institutional inequalities contribute to environmental degradation and public health crises. Planetary health is an important interdisciplinary field that focuses on the relationship between human well-being and the Earth's ecosystems. However, sociological inquiry into this field has not yet been fully explored. The study presents a sociological approach to planetary health that emphasizes the complex relationship between human society and its environment. By examining social drivers of environmental change, such as industrialization, globalization, and socioeconomic inequality, the paper seeks to understand how these factors exacerbate public health challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. It incorporates the concept of environmental justice and discusses global inequalities, revealing how socially vulnerable populations bear a disproportionate share of the health costs of environmental degradation. It also examines the role of social movements and policy reform in shaping sustainable solutions and emphasizes the need for systemic change to reduce harm to human and global health. This approach suggests that sociological tools such as social network analysis, cultural theory, and political economy are essential for designing equitable strategies to improve global health while sustaining the planet's ecosystems. This presentation will provide an overview of the concept of planetary health, show how events threatening planetary health are occurring on a global scale, and raise discussion about what role we as a society can play as academics.