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Life Below Water
Keeping faith with nature
Three childhood experiences set me on the course to working to restore degraded land through helping to connect people to nature. My mother’s strong and unwavering faith helped me to appreciate that life was about more than what we could accumulate in the present and that we could trust a loving heavenly father for all our needs. The abuse of beautiful forests and mountain streams seemed to be an expression of greed and disregard for future generations. Watching news programs showing children just like me going hungry seemed mad in a world of plenty.
Beating pollution by redesign
Over 8 million tons of plastic pollute the oceans each year. The problem is so severe that if nothing changes there could be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050. We must urgently rethink how we make and use this ubiquitous material now a staple of our modern economy. The appetite to take action is real: public and private sector financial commitments to combat ocean pollution made at the European Union's Our Ocean conference this year for instance totalled 7.2 billion euros. Yet if cleaning up is a short-term necessity only a whole system reset will provide a long-term solution to plastics pollution and the economic losses associated with it.
A clean environment for all
The world’s governments have pledged to build a better future where no one is left behind yet the most basic conditions for people to survive and thrive are out of reach for many. Over 90 per cent of us breathe dirty air and over 90 per cent of those who die as a result are in low- and middle- income countries with women and young children disproportionally affected.
Regaining ground
Over hundreds of years industrial activities including mining chemical production manufacturing of consumer goods and agriculture introduced pollutants into the soil contaminating it along with groundwater often over large areas. Past practices were different from today's: waste was dumped in an uncontrolled way or used in applications that are no longer acceptable while unabated emissions to air and water had widespread impacts on surrounding populations and the environment.
Waste not …
The consumer goods industry has entered an era of responsibility where companies consumers governments and non-governmental organizations are collaborating more and more frequently to address some of the biggest challenges facing the world. We now have a better understanding of the wide-ranging impacts of the manufacture and use of consumer goods. Companies like Procter & Gamble are continually refining their approach to developing manufacturing and marketing products more responsibly and encouraging mindful consumption of the everyday products that many of us often take for granted.
The weight of cities
How do we prepare for the doubling of the global urban population by 2050? By dramatically rethinking urbanism and its governance. That means designing cities for people not cars; allowing everyone access to urban opportunities; investing in resource-efficient buildings transport energy water and waste systems; and enabling cities to experiment and to learn from each other.
Clearing the air
Humankind's future will largely be decided in cities. Half the world's population already lives in them and by 2050 this will have risen to 70 per cent. Cities are where global challenges and problems are concentrated: they consume three quarters of the world's resources and generate three quarters of all emissions.
Keeping water fresh
Guaranteeing safely managed clean water and sanitation for everyone remains one of the biggest global challenges that are solvable in our lifetimes. But we must prioritize collaboration and monitoring.
Free of plastic bags
Kenya faces major challenges in waste management. Most urban centres lack basic waste management structures and open dumping is the most popular option. A close look at problematic waste at roadsides rivers dumpsites and most public spaces revealed that polythene bags were most widespread. Scientists claim that polythene bags take over 1000 years to decompose: hence the earliest ones are still with us somewhere in the environment.
Reflections
If pollution was simply about having to put up with a bad odour or some unsightly smog it could be considered tolerable. The sad fact however is that it’s also sending millions to an early grave.
Superheroes of our own
The white-coated scientist explained calmly to the trigger-happy superheroes that the deadly menace they had come to Earth to fight was already under control.
A race against the clock
Air pollution causes millions of premature deaths worldwide every year as confirmed in each of the recent Global Burden of Disease surveys by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation the world's most comprehensive epidemiological database. The economic cost as calculated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and in other authoritative studies runs into trillions of dollars.
Bringing a sea change
Few will forget the day in April 2010 a BP oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil gushed for 87 days and the world reacted with horror. Birds fish and marine mammals lay lifeless along the coastline consumed by the deadly waste. It was one of the worst environmental disasters in the history of the United States.
Young champions of the Earth
Young Champions of the Earth is a forward-looking initiative designed to breathe life into the ambitions of brilliant young environmentalists. In this inaugural year six young people – one from each global region – have been selected to receive mentorship specialized training and $15000 in seed funding to bring their big ideas to life. UN Environment has partnered with Covestro a world-leading supplier of high-tech polymer materials to develop and run the initiative. In addition to seed funding for each Young Champion the winners are put through an incubator training programme and are offered mentorship by Covestro staff.
The environment's parliament
The United Nations Environment Assembly has been called the“Parliament of the Environment.” The highest level of authority on the environment in the United Nations system it is a unique and inclusive body that brings together high-level decision makers civil society experts business representatives and others from all countries of the world to find solutions to the most pressing environmental problems. It is so much more than just another United Nations body. It has the potential to be a global coalition of institutions and organizations supported by individuals united in combating environmental deterioration and pollution for the sake of future generations.
Pollution's toll
In 2015 according to the Global Burden of Disease study over 9 million deaths — 16 per cent of the total — were attributable to pollution specifically to lack of access to clean water and sanitation household burning of solid fuels for cooking outdoor air pollution or exposure to lead. Virtually all deaths due to lack of safe water and sanitation and three-quarters of those due to indoor air pollution occurred in either low or low-middle income countries as did half the deaths attributable to outdoor air pollution. Upper-middle income countries accounted for just one-quarter of deaths due to indoor and 40 per cent of deaths associated with outdoor air pollution.
Reacting to chemicals
Toxic chemicals threaten current and future generations. To protect them we must change course by shifting our chemical practices to a more sustainable model.
Secretary-General's Message to the third UN Environment Assembly
We have the right to live in a clean environment. We expect to be able to eat drink and breathe without risking our health. Yet we continue to pollute our air land waterways and oceans. We trigger sand and dust storms due to climate change and environmental degradation. We use dangerous chemicals and substances in everyday objects. We inflict global suffering that is inexcusable preventable and reversible.
Investing in clean water
There are women we work with who wait for hours to answer the call of nature. They can "go" on the edge of their village on the river or on the train tracks. Open defecation leads to all kinds of problems. Think of the health impacts of not defecating all day when you need to and the safety issues of going out at night. Think of the potential for contamination.
Towards zero-pollution cities
Air pollution is a global killer and predominantly an urban one. Worldwide about 7 million premature deaths are associated with indoor and outdoor air pollution by fine particulate matter. Most occur in urban areas where a majority of people now live breathing air that can cause asthma respiratory infections high blood pressure heart and lung disease and cancer. Diverse cities – rich poor small large developed and developing – are reporting airborne levels of these particles that exceed the World Health Organization’s clean air guidelines: some of the most polluted air and the heaviest toll on human lives occur in Asia.