Environment and Health
(Note: This reading reflection paper was written in the second half of 2020 as part of an Introduction to Global Health course)
According to the Global Health Watch, the post-1800 period is referred to as the “Anthropocene.” This is because this period has and is characterized by increasing human induced environmental degradation through deforestation, burning of fossil fuels, poor waste management practices, among others. These activities are responsible for poor air, water, and land quality that have adverse effects on health outcomes. Skolnick (2020) defines the environment as “external physical, chemical, and microbiological pressures and processes that impinge upon individuals and groups and are beyond the immediate control of individuals.” An individual is exposed to these pressures and processes — environmental degradation — at the household, workplace, community, regionally, and globally.
According to the Global Health Watch, electronic waste (e-waste), lead, and mercury end up in dumpsites in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Carbon emissions from fossil fuel use result in poor ambient air quality in urban areas and is implicated in global warming and climate change. Ambient air pollution is also associated with “preterm birth, low birth weight, and small gestational age births, poor neurological development in children, and diabetes.” As mentioned by the Global Health Watch, “WHO estimates that climate change will cause and additional 250,000 deaths per year between 2030 and 2050 (WHO, 2014c).” However, this estimate accounts for only deaths caused directly by climate change and does not account for deaths caused by conflict over resources by populations who live on land that is now ecologically fragile due to degradation (UNDP, 2015). Environmental degradation also results in water and sanitation related diseases responsible for about 1.4 million deaths each year. Infants and malnourished children are most vulnerable with “750,000 dying annually from diarrhea — 90 percent attributable to unsafe/inadequate water and sanitation (UNICEF, 2015).”
Whitmee et al (2015) think the environmental challenges and their negative impacts are caused by multiple failures: conceptual and empathy failures; knowledge failures; implementation failures. Examples of conceptual and empathy failures include the over-reliance on the gross domestic product as a measure of human progress and valuing present day gains over future heath and environmental quality. I think failures are interconnected. Inadequate empathy results in a “failure to address social and environmental drivers of ill health” and not investing resources needed to recognize and effectively implement solutions to environmental challenges and threats.
As with most social determinants of health, the exposure, risk, vulnerabilities, and high cost of environmental degradation and its health consequences are borne by people who are already living in poverty, depend on the land and the environment for their source of livelihood, and are excluded from power and decision making.
Question
· Population growth is often described as a source of increasing environmental pollution and overconsumption. While this may sound Neo-Malthusian, I just wonder why there are no population control measures globally, for example, a global maximum number of children per woman? I also recognize that curbing population growth may not solve the problem of overproduction/over extraction and overconsumption.
· Are there innovative ways to hold the US accountable for its contributions to greenhouse gases and set a positive standard globally? Perhaps a bill, a federal constitutional amendment, an approach that doesn’t change with the party in power.