Surely it is time for a more nuanced understanding of the historical evidence for a human-animal interconnectedness and a human-animal-environmental interdependency.
The southern African concept of ubuntu epitomizes the mutual interdependency of human beings, be they scientists or citizens, and the message that 'no person is an island' [ 2].
There are also endogenous viruses and retrotransposons that lurk in our tissues and form major components of our DNA 4. Next, in terms of their interdependency with human physiology, and particularly important in the context of this paper, are the various microbiotas (gut, skin, airway, oropharyngeal, genitourinary).
The Kazakh literary concept of humanity is founded upon a complex interdependency of the natural and the human realms that is expressed through numerous metaphors dealing with animal life and the forces of nature.
Evidently, health and health care concerns all people, and are, at a fundamental level, universal concepts with intrinsic value, underpinned by an ontological complexity and reality of the human condition involving concepts such as interdependency, vulnerability and need.
Its aims are self-sufficiency, sustainability and the promotion of permaculture (agriculture and horticulture that mimic nature's interdependencies and lessen the need for human intervention).
Figure 7 Complex interdependency of sex and gender throughout the human life cycle.
The technological progress has created global interdependencies and pressures embracing all domains of human activity – society, economy and the environment, and affecting both their physical and mental dimensions.
These decisions involve significant uncertainty, multiple stakeholder groups, competing objectives, and dynamic, non-linear interdependencies which test the limits of unaided human judgment.
As someone who often writes about our human climate, the events in Japan also brings to mind our interdependency both in the immediate aftermath of tragedy in the everyday times that follow when vulnerability stays.
