An alternative perspective on the challenges facing science today
PART 1: POLLUTING THE PLANET As I read about the environmental destruction carried out by multi-national corporations clearing land to grow palm oil, sugar cane and other crops in the book "Landgrabbers" by Fred Pearce, I learned how we are producing foodstuffs and other materials at an unnecessarily large scale to satisfy a human population accustomed to consumerism. While poorer populations who lived in harmony with nature for thousands of years, have their human rights neglected and even lose their lives. Consumerism is driving behaviour that eventually harms the long-term health and welfare of humanity. Increasing urbanisation and economic development means our lives are more absorbed with gaining wealth, keeping up with the latest trends and a throwaway culture. In addition, human overpopulation is increasing competition for limited resources, adding to the anti-immigrant sentiment felt in many countries.
I thought the brilliant "People's Manifesto for Wildlife" initiated by Chris Packham in 2018 could be strengthened by including a Ministry for the environment and human health. As I searched online for existing policies, the most common policy area I encountered was the effect of climate change on human health and how to develop more resilient health systems. It seems not many were making the connection that many causes of environmental damage, climate change and the ecological crisis, are also causes of many human diseases and have detrimental effects on quality of life. It is only in the last few years health policy experts introduced the concept of ‘Planetary Health’, defined as “the health of human civilisation and the state of the natural systems on which it depends” [1,2]. While there is increased awareness of Earth's dire situation over the last couple of years, making the necessary changes happen fast is proving a challenge with the recent surge of right-wing anti-environmentalism reaching powerful positions in the form of the current US and Brazilian Presidents for example. We have a lot of work to do in very little time. Before we tackle the awkward question of overpopulation, we can have a massive impact by discouraging consumerism and developing existing technologies to cut carbon emissions. Many believe meaningful change means a poorer quality of life, which has some truth as developed countries are responsible for far more carbon emissions than developing nations. But is that a reasonable association to make? Some indulgences must be stopped but is that such a bad thing for our welfare? I hope my next four blog posts will offer a different perspective and a deeper understanding of how we depend on the natural world to survive, and why we need to save it fast. In this series, I will examine how solutions for our planetary crisis will benefit our quality of life and health. And how it won't necessarily come with the cost of living poorer lives. I will explore the common causes of non-communicable diseases and loss of land for nature, and why thriving natural ecosystems are essential for our well-being. But first, I will look at some of the sources of pollution that are damaging our ecosystems and our health.
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AuthorDr. Anusha Seneviratne This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Categories
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