The Anthropocene is official – but what does this mean for the future health of planet Earth?

‘Planetary health’ has emerged as a catch-all term for addressing issues as diverse as climate change, plastic pollution, antibiotic resistance, increasing meat consumption and poorly-planned urban expansion. It has also been used as a call to action to address the challenges of the Anthropocene – the ‘Age of Man’ – which recognises that the challenges the Earth currently faces are, largely, inflicted by humans. Humankind needs to reverse this trend and to re-evaluate our relationship with the natural world. In this regard, the formal recognition of the Anthropocene as a distinct geological epoch could be seen as a double-edged sword. Its focus on short-term human impact rather than the much longer history of Earth risks separating us further from nature and our conceptualisation of our place in the universe, rather than bringing us closer to it.