Advancing an environmentally responsible physiotherapy

 

The world faces complex and interrelated crises… Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, rapid urbanization, geopolitical conflict and militarization, demographic change, population displacement, poverty, and widespread inequity create risks of future crises even more severe than those experienced today. Responses require investments that integrate planetary, societal, community and individual health and well-being (WHO 2021 Geneva Charter for Wellbeing)

 

 The impact of human activities on our planet’s natural systems has been intensifying rapidly in the past several decades, leading to disruption and transformation of most natural systems. These disruptions in the atmosphere, oceans, and across the terrestrial land surface are not only driving species to extinction, they pose serious threats to human health and wellbeing. Characterising and addressing these threats requires a paradigm shift (Myers, 2017)

Action at the level of direct drivers of nature decline, although necessary, is not sufficient … a sustainable global future’ is ‘only possible with urgent transformative change that tackles the root causes: the interconnected economic, socio-cultural, demographic, political, institutional, and technological indirect drivers behind the direct drivers (Diaz et al., 2019)

About

An international community of academics, clinicians, practitioners and students interested in exploring and advancing the field of environmental physiotherapy. 

Blog

Follow our latest musings on environmental physiotherapy. Ideas, inspiration, news, publications, events, and more. 

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Become part of the first international community of physiotherapists with an interest in researching, developing, and practising physiotherapy at a planetary scale. 

Resources

A growing selection of resources carefully selected by members of the EPA to inspire your thinking and practice of environmental physiotherapy. 

Insights from the Act with Nature Study: A webinar from Nature Connection to Action on 28 May 2026

How can our relationship with nature support both human well-being and more sustainable ways of living? This question was at the heart of the Act with Nature research project, whose key findings will be presented in the webinar From Nature Connection to Action on 28...

When knowledge begins to move: Teaching planetary health advocacy in physiotherapy education

In my role as a lecturer in the physiotherapy programme at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, I have spent some years working at the intersection of planetary health, environmental physiotherapy, and sustainable healthcare. As the teacher responsible for these topics...

Duurzaamheid en zingeving in de fysiotherapie

Kleine stappen, grote betekenis Duurzaamheid in de fysiotherapie overstijgt het eenvoudig verminderen van de ecologische voetafdruk van individuele fysiotherapeuten of praktijken. Het gaat ook om het smeden van een gezonde en veerkrachtige samenleving. Onze recente...

Fluctuating Barometric Pressure – A Cause for Increase in Arthritic Pain?

How often have you heard a patient say, “This weather… oh, my arthritic knees”! Some patients say that with such conviction, but is there a correlation between weather changes and arthritic pain? Osteoarthritis (OA) is characterized by synovial inflammation, articular...

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