The climate crisis poses a dual challenge, undermining the integrity of both natural and social ecosystems, while simultaneously threatening public health, healthcare delivery, food and water security, and social resilience. These impacts are not isolated; they form a web of interactions where ecological degradation can exacerbate human vulnerabilities, and human activities can further accelerate environmental decline. This special Collection seeks to advance interdisciplinary dialogue and scientific inquiry into how climate change influences both ecological and human health, and how integrated solutions can foster sustainable planetary health. This paradigm recognizes the interdependence of thriving ecosystems and healthy communities. By combining insights from environmental science, public health, urban planning, agriculture, indigenous knowledge systems, and the social sciences, we aim to identify transformative strategies that can mitigate risks, enhance resilience, and promote long-term sustainability.

We welcome researchers to contribute to this special Collection by submitting original research articles, systematic reviews, policy analyses, and case studies that explore multifaceted relationship between climate change, ecological health, and planetary health along with innovative approaches, evidence-based interventions, and governance mechanisms to safeguard both people and the planet. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Suggested themes include (but are not limited to):

Climate change impacts on public health

Ecological health as a determinant of human well-being

Resilience and adaptation strategies in healthcare systems under climate stress

Mental health and psychosocial consequences of climate-related disasters

Climate change migration and health impacts

Biodiversity, ecosystem services, and their influence on the well-being of the population, including health outcomes

Sustainable urban planning and nature-based solutions for healthy cities

Climate-resilient agricultural and food systems

Indigenous knowledge, cultural heritage, and traditional ecological practices in climate adaptation

Governance frameworks and cross-sectoral policy innovations for planetary health

Reducing food waste and climate mitigation strategy

Sustainable diet for low carbon footprint and better human health

Financial Mechanisms for Planetary Health Interventions

This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 13, Climate Action.

All submissions in this collection undergo the journal’s standard peer review process. Similarly, all manuscripts authored by a Guest Editor(s) will be handled by the Editor-in-Chief. As an open access publication, this journal levies an article processing fee (details here). We recognize that many key stakeholders may not have access to such resources and are committed to supporting participation in this issue wherever resources are a barrier. For more information about what support may be available, please visit OA funding and support, or email OAfundingpolicy@springernature.com or the Editor-in-Chief.

Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine invites participating authors to submit to our Collection on The Possibilities of the Medical Humanities. When he asked what was missing from medical training, K. Danner Clouser, the first philosopher to teach ethics at a U.S. medical school, answered “everything that makes us human.” In the 1980s, Clouser called attention to the “belief that something vital and fundamental was missing in health professions education and that the humanities could fill in those gaps and omissions.” In the years since, this provocative idea of the humanities providing something “missing” in the way we think about, study, and teach medicine and health has flourished. We now see the Medical and Health Humanities as a recogniseable field with an ever-growing array of publications and journals, exhibitions and performances, curricula and courses. The Medical and Health Humanities have fundamentally changed the way that we think about the relationship between conceptions of health, the body, illness, death, medicine because they insist that we integrate our skills as humanists to the questions predominantly reserved for STEM curricula. The symposium theme of medical humanities is an intersection between literature, social sciences, and medicine. Medical humanities is the study of the human aspects of medicine from within traditional arts disciplines. Medical humanities is not just interdisciplinary, it is also a multidisciplinary field, consisting of humanities (theory of literature and arts, philosophy, ethics, history and theology), social sciences (anthropology, psychology and sociology) and arts (literature, theatre, cinema/film, music and visual arts).

• Possible topics include but are not limited to:

1. Representations of pandemics: Covid-19, influenza, Cholera, Tuberculosis, Malaria, the plague

2. Histories of the intertwining of medicine, scientific knowledge, healing

3. Representations of health, illness, death, dying in wars, natural disasters, slave plantations

4. Representations of disability, dementia, aging, and neurodiversity

5. Cures, potions, alternative medicine, rituals, pain, and healing

6. Colonialism, imperialism, and the Empire

7. Curricular opportunities for integrating the Humanities into Medical Education

8. Historical perspectives on medicine in the East, West, and Arab region

9. Women and medicine.