Environment and health
We addressed various topics in the framework of our study among the world youth and the panel of 100 personalities. Here are some examples of questions we discussed:
The quality of water, of air, of soil, of oceans and of food reflects our development choices. Epidemics of cholera, thus, persist in parts of the world where over half of the population has access to a cell phone, lung diseases are developing in major industrialized cities, serious soil pollution is detected in areas where hunger has declined.
Should hygiene and health, which are at the crossroads of many disciplines (ecology, biology, medicine, anthropology, urban planning…), be considered first priorities in the name of collective interest?
Did its confidence in future progress cause mankind to lose its immediate survival instinct?
Some interview excerpts linked to this topic:
- Health is wealth. It is perhaps the most important enabler of development. There is no life if health is not prioritized. This is why we must ensure that the pollution of our water supplies, our air, our food, and our other common natural goods, does not continue. Ecosystems are no longer able to take care of themselves – we must be the stewards of our environment. There is no point in investing in healthcare systems or building access to these systems if we are, at the same time, making ourselves sick by polluting our most basic environmental resources.
Noeleen Heyzer (Singapore), United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
For more informationEnvironment and Health
- We need to enter in a post-carbon, sustainable 21st century. In the coming era, hundreds of millions of people will produce their own green energy in their homes, offices, and factories, and share it with each other in an “energy Internet,” just like we now create and share information online. Five pillars of this Third Industrial Revolution are: shifting to renewable energy; transforming the building stock of every continent into micro-power plants; deploying hydrogen and other storage technologies; using Internet technology to transform the power grid into an energy-sharing intergrid; transitioning the transport fleet to electric plug-in and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
Jeremy Rifkin (USA), American essayist, specialist in economic and social prospective, Founder and President of the Foundation on Economic Trends and senior lecturer at the Wharton School's Executive Education Program.
More about: Science, politics and society
- In the final analysis the choice of an environmentally responsible lifestyle is a personal one, based on a moral or even faith-based position. More of our educational resources should be geared to creating this much needed mindset, currently shared by a minority, certainly not a majority of the world’s citizens.
Naomi Tsur (Israel), Environmentalist, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem (Israel) and Green Pilgrimage Network Ambassador
- There is no dividing line between the stories of nature and humanity. They are one and the same: human beings are dependent on the natural world for air, water, food, shelter, warmth and so much more. Nature is much more resilient than we are as a single species within it. Once we, as proponents of sustainable development, give up any claims to moral superiority and admit that sustainable development is an initiative created by humans to protect humans, as opposed to the environment, I believe we’ll see more people jumping on the bandwagon.
Melody Moezzi (Iran), Iranian-American writer, commentator, speaker, activist, author and attorney and Executive Director of the interfaith non-profit organization, 100 People of Faith