Human health vis-a-vis degradation of global environment:

Human health vis-a-vis degradation of global environment:

Environmental degradation is contributing to human health threats worldwide. We may have several questions in our mind. How much does the environment affect human health? Are air pollution and tainted water shortening our lives and those of our children? These questions have aroused increasing interest in recent years. In the poorest regions of the world an estimated one in five children will not live to see their fifth birthday, primarily because of environment-related diseases. This tragedy translates into more than 11 million childhood deaths a year worldwide, mostly due to malaria, acute respiratory infections or diarrhea, all illnesses that are largely preventable.

* Environmental degradation exerts significant pressure on human health. Exposure to air, water and soil pollution, to chemicals in the environment, or to noise, can cause cancer, respiratory, cardiovascular and communicable diseases, as well as poisoning and neuro-psychiatric disorders.

* Air pollution, in fact, is one obvious environmental health threat in many countries, contributing to a number of illnesses, such as asthma and in some cases leading to premature death. Of particular concern is the fact that children are more vulnerable to air pollution than adults, and increased rates of infant mortality have been recorded in highly polluted areas. Concerns about the impact of air pollution on health and the economy have resulted in measures to mitigate emissions of the most harmful pollutants, such as particle pollution (acids, organic chemicals, metals, and soil or dust particles) and ozone, which affects the respiratory system. Despite national and international interventions and decreases in major pollutant emissions, the health impacts of air pollution are not likely to decrease in the years ahead, unless appropriate action is taken.

* Water is another key environmental health issue – unsafe drinking water and untreated waste water kill thousands of people a year, most of them children. Other health issues associated with emerging environmental hazards, such as chemical products, will also need to be addressed. Chemical products are used in virtually every man-made product and play an important role in the everyday life of people around the world. However, harmful exposure to chemical products can lead to health problems such as skin diseases, chronic bronchitis, nervous system dysfunctions and cancers as well as damaging the environment.

* Environmental degradation has shown an increasing relationship with the rise and spread of human diseases. Genes evolved and became more susceptible to disease to the environmental impacts. The World Health Organization believes that almost one third of global disease can be directly related to environmental risk factors. Antibodies and immune systems have developed in part as a result of environmental change. In fact, environmental change plays a large role in the emergence of infectious disease. In particular, as the human population continues to grow, the population density increases; this leads to an abundance of parasites and infection-forming conditions. Extreme temperatures, climate-related disturbances, and air and water pollution have a direct influence on the spread of infection and disease. Environmental exposures to chemicals and toxins are a major contributor to disease.

* Many of the environmental conditions that impact health are avoidable. Therefore, prevention of health problems through environmental management, rather than simply treating diseases and ailments after they have occurred, is the salient message of environment and health section of various UN charter and various NGOs. These messages offer governments, development agencies, policy-making groups, private businesses, communities and individuals worldwide strategies to slow or even halt further environmental deterioration, averting significant ecological disruption and its possible accompanying economic impacts.

* Improvements must be made in environmental protection. Education is a key process in bettering the conditions. Monitoring of climatic changes help to anticipate outbreaks, as well as changing habits, such as drainage of swamps, screening of houses, and improvements in sanitation and nutrition. Improvement of air quality, water supplies and sanitation, education of the medical community and general public, support of vaccination research, and coordinated restrictions of the use of antibiotics and pesticides would lead to mitigate the problems.

Population displacement (migration) due to environmental degradation:

Population displacement (migration) due to environmental degradation:

To “migrate” means to move from one’s habitat. This movement ranges from free or voluntary movement, to forced or involuntary movement. In many cases, people are “displaced” by forces beyond their control, and hence the term “population displacement.” Environmental refugees are those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of prolonged environmental degradation / disruption caused by either nature and/or triggered by people, which jeopardized their existence / livelihood seriously affecting the quality of their life.
Population displacement due to environmental degradation is not a recent phenomenon. Historically, people have had to leave their land because it had been degraded (through natural disasters, war or over-­exploitation) and could not sustain them. What is recent is the potential for large movements of people resulting from a combination of resource depletion, the irreversible destruction of the ­environment and population growth (among other factors). The physical environment now is changing in ways that make human populations more vulnerable to environmental stress. As deforestation, global warming and other threats appear a new category of displaced people called environmental refugees have been created. The number of people displaced by environmental degradation is immense.

Recently, according to many, environmental refugees have become the single largest class of displaced persons in the world. As governments do not take official account of this unconventional category, estimates of the number of environmental refugees vary greatly. Countries in Africa and Asia are the most affected as displaced persons in the world because of environmental degradation. People also think that the numbers of environmental refugees are expected to increase ­rapidly. Many authors claim that, environmental degradation is likely to produce “waves of environmental refugees that spill across borders with destabilizing effects” on domestic order and international relations. Migration is a complex phenomenon, and it is difficult to isolate environmental stresses from the web of social, economic, and political relations.
There are numerous examples presented to substantiate the link between environmental change and population movement, but the commonly cited are the Sahel in Africa, El Salvador, Haiti, and Bangladesh. It is well documented that each of these regions or countries has experienced significant environmental stress, notably droughts, deforestation, soil degradation, and flooding. It is also clear that there is a complex array of social, economic and institutional processes at work - rapid population growth, inequitable land distribution, civil war, extreme poverty etc.

If deterioration of the natural resource systems continues, political and social instability will be aggravated, as will economic stagnation and rural poverty. This phenomenon in turn will constrain future economic and social development in the vulnerable developing countries.

There are three important stages in the movement process:
a. Survival—using movement as a means of obtaining relief from environmental stresses;
b. Recovery—where movers are able to use their movement to recover from the problem, and consolidate their position; and finally,
c. Improvement—where a person is able to use movement as a means of enhancing their position and prospects, in which case a return to the place of origin may be less likely to occur.

Migration is a complex phenomenon, and it is not clear in what ways environmental degradation influences a person’s decision to migrate. It is also difficult, if not impossible, to isolate environmental stresses from the complex web of social, economic, and political relations present in everyday living. However, accepting these difficulties, two sets of recommendations are presented below. The first set outlines general recommendations for assisting communities and regions under environmental stress, particularly where that stress may contribute to population movement. The second set provides more specific recommendations.
1. A major emphasis to be given on promoting sustainable development and its ecological, economic and social manifestations. Further, this implies ensuring human security. More specific recommendations include:

(a) Develop a system to help anticipate migrations that may be triggered by environmental disruptions. This could be in the form of an early warning system or simply a continual assessment of the vulnerability of regions and communities to environmental stress.

(b) Focus efforts on identifying adaptation mechanisms and how these mechanisms may be reinforced in vulnerable communities and regions.

(c) Develop case studies of the influences of environmental degradation on migration, with specific consideration paid to the development of procedures for assisting those people affected by environmental disruptions.

(d) Develop better working relationships between organizations devoted to human rights, environment, population and migration.

(e) Involve migrants and refugees directly in the ­development of programs to assist those affected by environmental deterioration.

(f) Recognize the cumulative causality of environmental degradation and population movement, and assist receiving regions to ensure minimal environmental impacts of the migration flows.

(g) Provide development assistance to countries most vulnerable to future environmental change; and

(h) Recognize that human rights and the sustainability of the environment—indeed, human security and all its components—should be the cornerstone of any assistance policies.

2. The more specific policy recommendations focusing on promoting sustainability in resource use, considering thoughtfully the complexities that underlie population growth rates and addressing the inequitable distribution of income and access to resources between and within countries, would be:

(a) An increase in support for women’s reproductive health and rights. Following the outcome of the UN Population Conference in Cairo in 1994, there must be support and funding for a comprehensive perspective on women’s health and human rights.
(b) There must be greater focus on agricultural activities and the role of multi-nationals in aggravating the resource inequities that exist in many countries. This should also include a focus on reducing erosion and deforestation, and increasing the sustainability of small farms in marginal areas.
(c) Greater effort should be made to improve environmental awareness and knowledge at all levels. This includes care for the environment and sustainable resource use.
(d) In this context, an adequate supply of freshwater is crucial. It is also imperative that treated water is recycled for agricultural uses. Inefficient use of water, water loss in urban areas, and the lack of systems to use recycled water greatly affect social welfare.

The complex nature of environment-population ­linkages makes it difficult to develop policy ­recommendations that are as concrete as many would like. However, it is apparent that environmental degradation and resource depletion, often filtered through contexts of poverty and inequity, can ­contribute to population movement.

Recycling is essential for improving environmental degradation:

Recycling is essential for improving environmental degradation:

Environmental problems have become so complex that many individuals feel they can have no effect on them. Problems like global warming, hazardous waste, loss of rain forests, endangered species, acid rain, the ozone layer, and the municipal waste crisis can feel out of our control. At the very least, these problems require group and corporate action or government intervention. But there are some things the individual can control. Our waste reduction and recycling activities can make a difference.

Recycling is nothing but reprocessing of old material and converting it to new usable products. Recycling prevents waste of potentially useful materials, reducing consumption of fresh raw material, ore and minerals. Recycling process also economizes over all energy consumption for production of materials than the virgin products; thereby improving environmental degradations. Recycling is a key concept of modern waste management.

The recyclable materials are mostly paper, metal, textiles, glass and plastics. These materials are either brought to a collection centre or picked-up from the curbside, sorted, cleaned and reprocessed into new products bound for manufacturing.

(i) Curbside recycling - Curbside recycling now serves half of the U.S. population, providing the most convenient means for households to recycle a variety of materials. While all curbside programs differ, the most commonly included materials are The Big Five: aluminum cans, glass bottles, paper, plastic and steel/tin cans.

(ii) Electronics - Technology has revolutionized our lifestyle through telephones, radios, TVs, computers and cell phones. However, the brisk pace of technology means these devices become obsolete quickly. A more recent issue is how our old electronics should be disposed of, because they often contain dangerous elements such as lead and mercury that can contaminate our soil and water supply.

(iii) Composting - Managing organic material at your home can not only decrease the amount of material you send to the landfill; it can also help turn your organic waste into a landscape asset. Composting will reduce the amount of food waste in your garbage can, while creating nutrient-rich fertilizer for your garden.