The environmental crisis is also a health crisis

As the world heads into an environmental crisis, too many governments are not treating it with adequate urgency, partly because the ramifications of things like climate change may seem remote or indirect to most people. However, there is mounting evidence that environmental degradation and its causes are also bringing immediate, direct, severe, and widespread harm to human health and wellbeing.

Pollution. Modern living and human activities release enormous toxins into our air, water, soil, and food. This pollution not only affects planetary health, but also human health. Pollution is now the largest environmental cause of disease and premature death. Nearly three-quarters of these deaths were due to outdoor and indoor air pollution, which increases the incidences of asthma, lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other chronic diseases.

The shifting of focus from environmental to human welfare is also beginning to bring attention to some of the sustainability practices that can be harmful to health, such as sealing windows and insulating buildings with toxic materials and substances. In addition to air, water, and soil pollution, researchers are just beginning to realize how light and noise pollution affect human health and wellness. A constant background of artificial sounds, lights, and distractions in the built environment – including traffic, airplanes, and machinery; heating and cooling systems; and digital displays, electronic sounds, and “canned” music – makes it hard to find mental respite, raises stress levels, affects sleep, and even has physical health impacts.

The 20th century’s Green Revolution and industrialization of agriculture have had serious environmental ramifications, including monoculture, reduction of biodiversity, nutrient depletion in soil, pesticides and runoff, genetically-modified organisms, greenhouse gas emissions, and global warming. Only in the last couple of decades has attention shifted to the negative social and health impacts of modern, industrialized agriculture and food systems. The grassroots food movement is now raising awareness of a host of concerns, including the deep connections among farming practices, land use, and health, as well as widespread issues with “food deserts,” food insecurity, food equity, and food safety.

The proliferation of the modern, industrialized system of farming and food production, distribution, and marketing is linked to the spread of unhealthy, nutrition-poor, highly-processed Western diets, which contribute to the rise of obesity and chronic disease worldwide.

Low-density, car-dependent, residential suburban development and sprawl over the last century, are practices that have increasingly been adopted in other regions throughout the world. While the widespread environmental costs of automobile dependency are widely recognized (fossil fuel dependence, pollution, climate change), attention has turned more recently to its health and wellbeing impacts. Planning and design approaches that favor motor vehicles over pedestrians have greatly reduced people’s ability to walk or cycle as a means of transport and greatly increased the time spent in cars, thereby reducing daily exercise opportunities and time with family and friends.

In many parts of the world, people now live and work in obesogenic built environments that reinforce a sedentary and even anti-social lifestyle – favoring driving over biking, sitting over walking, riding in elevators over using the stairs, texting over face-to-face conversation with a neighbor, and watching videos over outdoor recreation. It is no wonder that one in four adults do not get sufficient physical activity, obesity has nearly tripled worldwide since 1975, and 39% of adults are now overweight – all key risk factors that directly contribute to the rise of NCDs.

Environmental degradation directly and indirectly affects our health and wellbeing, through the air we breathe, how we procure and consume food, and how we live and travel. As people become aware of these risks, it’s important to seek out alternative lifestyles that are simultaneously healthier for themselves and more sustainable for the planet.

(Thanks to Global Wellness Institute for this contribution)