An ever expanding body of scientific evidence attests to the ways in which climate change – with its attendant rising temperatures, extreme weather events, heat waves, air pollution, and social instability – is exacerbating already critical health risks, from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases to the spread of pathogens, and even worsening mental health issues. Against this backdrop, both the One Health perspective and the contributions of the arts offer practical strategies for an integrated approach to this crisis.
In the face of these challenges, One Health offers a concrete response. It represents a policy and an integrated paradigm for global health, one that recognises and promotes the interdependence of human, animal, and ecosystem health.
The value of this approach is rooted in one specific fact: over 60% of emerging infectious diseases arise from contact between people and animals, often resulting from changes to the environment and in human activities. Many threats to modern health, therefore, are not contained within one sphere, but arise from their intermingling.
The One Health approach is broad in scope, involving a range of sectors and disciplines. It is founded on collaboration, communication, and coordination between experts in human and veterinary medicine, ecology, the environment, food safety, the agri-food industry, and numerous other social and scientific fields.
Such a strategy is essential for meeting complex challenges like zoonotic diseases (that are passed from animals to humans), antimicrobial resistance, food safety, climate change, and ecosystem vulnerabilities (The European Food Safety Authority).
Numerous international organisations – including the WHO, FAO, UNEP, and WOAH – are promoting joint plans and policy frameworks supporting the adoption of the One Health approach at national and global levels.
Against this backdrop of complex challenges, a new model for action is emerging, wherein culture and the arts are more than aesthetic expression or social statement, but are powerful tools for public health, social cohesion and communication, and for effecting the shift in culture that is needed on climate change.
This vision is at the heart of a growing international movement helmed by the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, a global initiative co-founded in 2023 by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University, Community Jameel, and CULTURUNNERS. The lab’s goal is ambitious: to integrate the arts into global public health strategies and policies, producing scientific evidence and creative campaigns, and engaging in advocacy to improve wellbeing through art - and also, now, to take on the health impacts of the climate crisis.
In recent years, interest in the relationship between health and the arts has grown into an established field of research, as shown by the first scoping review on the subject, published by the WHO in 2019, which documented how engaging in the arts – from music to dance, from theatre to painting – could have a positive impact on physical, mental, and social wellbeing, with observable effects on pain management, mental health, social participation, and the prevention of chronic conditions.
In a testament to the importance accorded to the scientific aspect of the issue, the Lab has launched a series of studies in partnership with the The Lancet, one of the world’s leading peer-reviewed publications, to systematically map and document the benefits that engaging in the arts can have for health (Lancet Global Series on the Health Benefits of the Arts).
Already, during the COP28 Healing Arts Week, held at the 2023 climate conference in Dubai, the Jameel Arts & Health Lab promoted panels and activities that explored the role of the arts in addressing both human and planetary health, as well as calling attention to the conversation around the psychological impacts of climate change and the cultural responses required.
A talk sponsored by the Lab during COP30 in 2025 encapsulated a position now shared by numerous experts: “The climate crisis is a health crisis. Culture is part of the solution.” This statement has gradually become a part of the Climate Action Agenda. It reflects a new direction that no longer looks only at emissions reductions and technological adaptation, but that also recognises public health, culture, and civil society as key elements.
According to a recent international survey conducted by the Arts & Health Journal and involving 79 experts working at the intersection of art, health, and climate change, 96% of these believe that the arts are essential to creating social cohesion - a key element for taking on complex issues like the climate crisis. 87% noted that art can promote “deeper engagement in climate action” and 81% view the arts as an effective means for raising public awareness about climate-related health concerns.
The fact that these opinions are in accord underscores a fundamental point: the environmental crisis is not simply about greenhouse gases or rising temperatures; it has real human health consequences, including psychological, social, and cultural impacts. In this context, art and culture are not ancillary, but rather an integral part of the solution – and, as such, they require sustained investment.
The arts can be an ally to health on a number of levels, for instance:
Barcelona has moved in this direction, offering an innovative example of how to incorporate cultural spaces into urban climate change adaptation policies. It was in 2018 that the municipality first introduced an organised network of climate shelters for the people of the city, including “cultural shelters”: libraries and community centres positioning themselves as places where people are welcome, free-of-charge, to take shelter from the heat or cold, rest, socialise, and take part in cultural activities.
Turin has also embraced this approach, by means of the ICARUS research project, an acronym that translates to “Heat Islands: “Urban Climate Shelter Accessibility in the Public Services”, funded by the Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST) of the Turin Polytechnic University and the University of Turin. Developed in close collaboration with the Municipal Library Service, the project aims to examine the role that Turin's libraries can play as climate shelters to deal with the impacts of heat islands in the city.
In Italy, the 2025 Risk Management in Healthcare Forum, entitled “A new healthcare system – the ongoing reform”, held in Arezzo in November, with over 15,000 attendees, dedicated a keynote session to the One Health approach as a systemic health model – one capable of interlinking human, veterinary and environmental health within risk management and prevention policies.
One innovation of the 2025 Forum was to present the contributions of the cultural and creative spheres as integral parts of the healthcare ecosystem. The participation of organisations such as the Cultural Welfare Center (CWC) and the Reggia di Venaria in the One Health panel underscored the fact that healthcare and wellbeing extend beyond the clinical and biological to include the cultural, social and creative spheres.
Culture and creative engagement can support more inclusive healthcare models, fostering social cohesion, community participation, and health pathways that encourage the development of life skills, thus linking culture to determining factors for long-term health.
This innovation attests to a broader trend within healthcare policy forums: giving space to voices from the social sphere as part of building a health ecosystem that consists not only of healthcare, but which is also civic and participatory.
To this end, the 2025 Risk Management Forum opened up important opportunities for conversation, wherein the One Health approach could become a bridge linking science, society, and culture.
Today, science, culture, and civil society are converging around one pivotal idea: human and planetary wellbeing are inextricable.
The arts, in all of their forms, can bridge the gaps between scientific knowledge and public action, between individual emotions and collective responsibility. In an era when the climate crisis is calling into question not only the balance of our environments, but also our ways of living, working, and thinking, art becomes a powerful tool, not only for understanding the world, but also for changing it.
Further reading:
Catterina Seia e Elena Rosica, Il potere della partecipazione sociale, 19 dicembre 2025;
Catterina Seia e Teresa Albergo, Bambini, natura e animali: guida alla crescita empatica e sostenibile, 26 marzo 2024;
Catterina Seia, Un crescente sviluppo di attenzione su Cultura e Salute, 30 maggio 2023;
Catterina Seia e Monica Botta, Natura e benessere: immergersi nel patrimonio verde per rigenerarsi, 22 giugno 2022.