Abstract
The term “Anthropocene Syndrome” describes the wicked interrelated challenges of our time. These include, but are not limited to, unacceptable poverty (of both income and opportunity), grotesque biodiversity losses, climate change, environmental degradation, resource depletion, the global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), health inequalities, social injustices, the spread of ultra-processed foods, consumerism and incivility in tandem with a diminished emphasis on the greater potential of humankind, efforts toward unity, or the value of fulfilment and flourishing of all humankind. Planetary health is a concept that recognizes the interdependent vitality of all natural and anthropogenic ecosystems—social, political and otherwise; it blurs the artificial lines between health at scales of person, place and planet. Promoting planetary health requires addressing the underlying pathology of “Anthropocene Syndrome” and the deeper value systems and power dynamics that promote its various signs and symptoms. Here, we focus on misinformation as a toxin that maintains the syndromic status quo—rapid dissemination of falsehoods and dark conspiracies on social media, fake news, alternative facts and medical misinformation described by the World Health Organization as an “infodemic”. In the context of planetary health, we explore the historical antecedents of this “infodemic” and underscore an urgent need to remediate the misinformation mess. It is our contention that education (especially in early life) emphasizing mindfulness and understanding of the mechanisms by which propaganda is spread (and unhealthy products are marketed) is essential. We expand the discourse on positive social contagion and argue that empowerment through education can help lead to an information transformation with the aim of flourishing along every link in the person, place and planet continuum.
Highlights
The toxins we refer to are widely distributed pieces of misinformation. In this Viewpoint, we argue that addressing the Syndrome and promoting planetary health requires a deeper analysis of our post-truth era, and an understanding of the ways in which the human vulnerability to misinformation can promote divisiveness, maintain the status quo and compromise planetary health
In our Viewpoint we provide historical context to what the World Health Organization refers to as an “infodemic”—a global crisis of “contagious” misinformation; we attempt to bring this discourse upstream; in the context of planetary health, the current coronavirus pandemic is unmasking the seriousness of a pre-existing pandemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and forcing society to more closely examine the “causes of the causes” that drive risk of COVID-19 severity/hospitalization/mortality in disproportional ways; that is, mounting evidence shows that COVID-19 severity and mortality is shouldered by the disadvantaged [13], the very individuals and groups that carry the disproportional burden of NCDs [14]
Inoculation through education and the utilization of messages that counteract the forces that compromise planetary health are a subject of intense scrutiny; this includes employing specific language/narrative that foils otherwise persuasive content proffered by the marketers of unhealthy commercial products [148,149], diminishes the propaganda that otherwise obfuscates the social determinants of health and suggests the NCD “pandemic” is solely a matter of personal responsibility [150], countering misinformation related to climate change [151] and antivaccine attitudes [152]
Summary
The toxins we refer to are widely distributed pieces of misinformation In this Viewpoint, we argue that addressing the Syndrome and promoting planetary health requires a deeper analysis of our post-truth era, and an understanding of the ways in which the human vulnerability to misinformation (and disinformation and propaganda) can promote divisiveness, maintain the status quo and compromise planetary health. While it is essential to understand and address the acute crisis of misinformation as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic (or even the most obvious aspects of planetary health—e.g., climate-change denial), we must examine poverty (calling it by its real name, and not the ideological income-based red-line definitions of “extreme poverty” that paint rosy pictures for “progress” and the status quo [21]) and the upstream drivers of NCD risk; it is our contention that by doing so, especially through policy changes and education, Challenges 2021, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW.
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