It really is a no-brainer. If you harm nature / the planet that sustains all life by providing air, water and food, you harm yourself. Yet we created and sheepishly support a system that systematically destroyed and polluted nature to such an extent that we get sick and die of the air that we breathe, the food we eat and the water that we drink . . .
Shocking statistic reveals that more people, including children, die these days from air and environmental pollution than from HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
“With natural systems being degraded to an extent unprecedented in human history, both our health and that of our planet are in peril.”
These issues were addressed in Morocco on Saturday at a special meeting where world leaders (at last!) acknowledged and highlighted the unique link between environment and health as national governments prepare to implement the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
Dr. Maria Neira, director of the World Health Organisation’s department of public health, social and environmental development, said globally 12,6 young people and children die each year. Half of these deaths are caused by air pollution and the rest by other environmental pollution factors.
“We are busy killing the earth’s bio-diversity and thereby ourselves. The resources (like plants) that people are destroying in their quest for so-called development, are exactly what is used to make medicine,” she was quoted saying.
Neira said the WHO took a very strong stance that all developments must be subject to people’s health. “If a planned development poses a threat to people’s health, it should not happen. This issue should not even be debatable”, she said.
Will this international move towards balancing the need for healthy communities with stewardship of natural ecosystems have any effect on South Africa’s Environmental legislation – which has seemingly become toothless in the light of the disastrous environmental destruction caused by thoughtless industrial and mining projects that are systematically killing all our natural resources?
If people are responsible for their own health, it is maybe time that they stand up en masse against authorities and companies that threaten it by blatantly disregarding all citizens’ constitutional right to a healthy and clean environment.
Read more here about the special event at the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech, Morocco:
http://newsroom.unfccc.int/climate-action/human-health-needs-a-healthy-planet/
http://newsroom.unfccc.int/climate-action/human-health-needs-a-healthy-planet