Environmental Violence: A tool for planetary health research

From climate change to toxic pollution and the interactive effects of multiple pollution streams, human health is under siege. Human-produced environmental risks to health and wellbeing are massive and contributing to patterns of global morbidity, mortality, economic inequality, displacement, and insecurity. The implications of human-produced environmental harms to global health are complex just as are their causes. The concept of environmental violence (EV) offers a potentially robust frame for engaging this issue. We argue that a more specified and structured EV framework and definition focusing on human-produced harms by way of pollution emissions is both timely and necessary for engaging the complexities of global public health. To clarify why, and how, this is the case we review the literature employing the term environmental violence and propose a more concise definition along with a framework for tracking and analyzing it and its constituent parts. Finally, we discuss the potential value of our framework for research and policy making regarding human health.