We live on an urban planet, one that will become even more urban in coming decades. The polycrisis of biodiversity loss and climate change is interacting dynamically with urbanization creating a locus of impact both by, and on, cities and urbanized regions.
Authoritarian populist movements are emerging in the global context (e.g. in the US, Russia, India, Brazil, Argentina), and Europe (e.g. in Holland, Finland, France, Hungary). This phenomenon shares several characteristics at an international level, partly derived from the current phase of exhaustion of a globalized economic model, which in turn entails a concatenation of cyclical and structural crises (“poly-crises”) that generate high levels of insecurity and uncertainty in society. At the same time, the rise of populist movements is revealing the weaknesses of the political model of representative democracy.
The One Health approach is a global public health strategy that emphasises collaboration and communication across human, animal, and environmental health domains to achieve optimal well-being. Originating in response to zoonotic outbreaks like SARS and Ebola (and later COVID), it is integral to various global commitments such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.
