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Our Planet - Volume 2017, Issue 4, 2018
Volume 2017, Issue 4, 2018
In this issue of Our Planet, policymakers, experts and business leaders examine the growing threat of pollution, its enormous impacts on people and the environment, and the innovative solutions that can help us move towards a pollution-free planet. This publication contains ideas and calls to advance the forward-thinking solutions to pollution that the world urgently need. It constitutes an important initial stride along the road toward a pollution-free planet.
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Reflections
Author: Erik SolheimIf 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.
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Secretary-General's Message to the third UN Environment Assembly
Author: António GuterresWe 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.
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A clean environment for all
Author: Amina J. MohammedThe 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.
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The environment's parliament
Author: Edgar Gutierrez-EspeletaThe 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.
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Free of plastic bags
Author: Judi WakhunguKenya 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 1,000 years to decompose: hence the earliest ones are still with us somewhere in the environment.
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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.
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Bringing a sea change
Author: Michael GoveFew 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.
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Clearing the air
Author: Corine MauchHumankind'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.
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Triumph by treaty
Authors: Mario Molina and Durwood ZaelkeOzone depletion was the first human threat to the global atmosphere to be recognized. It was also the first to be addressed by the international community. The results have been truly remarkable. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this year, can claim to be one of the most successful international treaties ever struck.
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Waste not …
Author: Virginie HeliasThe 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.
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Investing in clean water
Authors: Matt Damon and Gary WhiteThere 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.
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Beating pollution by redesign
Author: Ellen MacArthurOver 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.
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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 $15,000 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.
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Reacting to chemicals
Authors: Olga Speranskaya and Yuyun IsmawatiToxic chemicals threaten current and future generations. To protect them, we must change course by shifting our chemical practices to a more sustainable model.
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Regaining ground
Author: Lucia BuvéOver 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.
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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.
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A race against the clock
Author: Rana RoyAir 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.
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Pollution's toll
Author: Maureen CropperIn 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.
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Towards zero-pollution cities
Author: Anu RamaswamiAir 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.
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Keeping water fresh
Authors: John Sauer and Giovanni DusabeGuaranteeing 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.
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