Through adversity, LiPH reveals its true strength.
The Challenge: Earth Crisis
Earth Crisis represents an urgent and unprecedented threat to humanity and all life on Earth. Issues once seen as isolated “environmental” problems—climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, and the degradation of land and marine systems—are now driving global health and humanitarian emergencies.
Human activities have outpaced the planet’s ability to recover, fundamentally altering Earth systems and threatening every dimension of human health—from food and water security to increased disease outbreaks and intensified natural disasters. These impacts fall disproportionately on the world’s poorest populations, Indigenous Peoples, people of color, and future generations, while the benefits of activities that degrade natural systems accrue to the privileged. Addressing equity and justice is thus essential in tackling these challenges.
Planetary health emerged as a framework to address the Earth Crisis.
Safeguarding a livable future will require bold, systemic transformations: a Great Transition in energy, food, manufacturing, and infrastructure systems, supported by innovative technologies and collaborative governance. Effective communication, cultural engagement, and the insights of the arts and humanities will be vital to mending fractured relationships—between people and nature, the wealthy and the poor, and present and future generations.
Since 2015, the Planetary Health Alliance (PHA) has established itself as the backbone organization at the heart of the rapidly growing, global, transdisciplinary field of Planetary Health. With more than +472 member organizations in over 79 countries committed to understanding and addressing the impacts of global environmental change on human health and wellbeing. PHA also supports a network of regional hubs to galvanize local action throughout the globe and a cohort of Planetary Health Campus Ambassadors to lift the voices of youth leaders.
Its activities fall into six areas under two broad categories:
building the field (community building; research and knowledge curation; education)
mainstreaming Planetary Health (communications; policy; movement building).
PHA is shifting global consciousness about the moment we face. It is building powerful new constituencies across medicine, global health, the private sector, and civil society to demand rapid structural shifts in how we live so we may protect and regenerate our natural life-support systems and secure a livable future for humanity and the web of life on Earth.
PHA’s Secretariat is based at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington DC.
The Pandemic: A Wake Up Call to Healthcare
COVID-19 transformed healthcare and emergency medicine, exposing both the fragility of our systems and the resilience of those who stepped forward to meet the challenge. In the early days, unity prevailed: healthcare workers became "heroes," and bipartisan efforts rallied to save lives. Yet, as the pandemic wore on, heightened division, polarization, and vulnerability emerged, leaving deep scars and underscoring the need for systemic innovation.
This change witnessed during the pandemic—from connection to fragmentation—reflects the broader threats posed by the Earth crisis: shared vulnerabilities exacerbated by divisions.
The Opportunity: A New Platform & A New Partner
The Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health (JHIPH), founded in 2024, catalyzes scholarship and practice in Planetary Health across the University, uniting a cohesive, global community of practice. By leveraging Johns Hopkins University’s vast resources and global reach—alongside the Planetary Health Alliance’s programs, partners, and engagements—JHIPH positions Johns Hopkins as a leader in addressing the global health and humanitarian dimensions of the Earth crisis, advancing solutions and driving the Planetary Health social movement.
The Johns Hopkins Department of Emergency Medicine recognizes the urgent need for bold innovation and has become the first to leverage JHIPH’s platform to launch a transformative fellowship. Designed for emergency clinicians seeking to redefine their sense of purpose after the pandemic, pioneer a new emergency medicine subspecialty, and create lasting hope—this is LiPH: Leadership in Planetary Health.
Why Emergency Medicine? A Frontline Perspective
The emergency department is always open—24/7/365—a space where people turn during their most vulnerable moments. Like a home’s back door with the light always on, it serves as a trusted entry point for those with nowhere else to go, making it both a safety net and a vital connection point for individuals and communities.
Emergency medicine approaches comprehensive patient care as a team endeavor. The field’s inherent qualities such as agile decision-making, disaster preparedness, and adaptability, position it uniquely to address the interconnected challenges of Planetary Health. Its practitioners are already on the frontlines of climate-related disasters, global health, emerging diseases, and health inequities, making emergency medicine an ideal launch point for this transformative fellowship in Planetary Health.
LiPH channels these strengths, turning adversity into action to create leaders in the field. By integrating Planetary Health principles into emergency medicine, the fellowship equips clinicians to confront the Earth Crisis with urgency and compassion. It empowers leaders to develop solutions that restore natural systems, address systemic inequities, and sustain the interconnected fabric of life on Earth.
Our goal is to expand LiPH as a fellowship to other Johns Hopkins Medicine departments and Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health Programs.