Elsie LHealthy Planet, Healthy People
Our health is intrinsically tied to the health of our planet, which is becoming increasingly unhealthy. Urgent transformations are needed to prevent further deterioration of human lives.
What does a healthy lifestyle mean to you?
The absence of disease? The right nutrition from foods? Eight glasses of water a day? Regular outdoor exercise in sunshine and fresh air, perhaps?
Likely all of the above.
For many of us, these are basic human needs that we take for granted. We enjoy our three meals a day, clean water from our taps and the occasional jaunts into nature for rejuvenation.
Yet for people in different parts of the world suffering from poverty, hunger, water scarcity and pollution, these are luxuries that exist only in their hopes.
A healthy environment is both a prerequisite and a foundation for human health and wellbeing
The Sombre State Today
Our planet is becoming increasingly unhealthy, and this is having a direct impact on human life:
An estimated 12.6 million deaths each year are attributable to unhealthy environments. Environmental risk factors contribute to more than 100 diseases and injuries.[1]
One in four people globally do not have access to safe drinking water. Approximately 2.3 billion people live in water-stressed countries, of which a third live in high and critically water-stressed countries.[2]
One in nine globally faced hunger in 2020, and one in three suffered from some form of malnutrition.[3]
GEO-6: UNEP’s Sixth Global Environmental Outlook
The UN Environment Program’s most comprehensive environmental report to-date - GEO-6 “Healthy Planet, Healthy People” - shows that a healthy environment is both a prerequisite and a foundation for human health and wellbeing.
The report emphasises the necessary actions needed to transform three systems:
Food - adopting sustainable consumption practices;
Energy - decarbonising the atmosphere and building sustainable energy systems;
Waste - shifting to a circular economy, one that uses waste as a resource.
In this blog post, we delve into the system that affects us most intimately, everyday - food.
Transforming the Food System
Of the GEO-6’s recommendations for transforming the food system, three areas have been highlighted as being able to make significant amounts of progress.
1. Incentivise SUSTAINABLE FARMING
