People and planet: from vicious cycle to virtuous circle
BMJ 2012; 344 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e3774 (Published 31 May 2012) Cite this as: BMJ 2012;344:e3774All rapid responses
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It is true that there is popollution which growing numbers of population outwitting the natural resources available for human consumption. There is drain in natural resources and there is no limit to exploitation of nature by human needs. Yet there is resilience in Nature that whenever it is threatened it comes out with answers to teething problems of man-made disasters. Planning and futuristic calculations on the human agenda for its living must include the ability to harvest, develop more natural resources and sustain biodiversity the very essence of planet earth. Responsible citizens are made to spend more time on how to sustain their daily lives with very little time left to think about what is happening to their mother planet. If the citizens of the world are educated and made aware of the harms they do nature because of their (even genuine needs)needs mother nature could be protected. We the citizens of the world must recognize that on global issues we need to stand united though divided on national interests. The political divide and geographic isolation must pave way for human co-operation with science acting as a positive force to rebuild our natural resources and the forgotten word love as the magic wand of human survival.
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Re: People and planet: from vicious cycle to virtuous circle
It is a good beginning to recognize that we are ‘at the very beginning', surely 'a good place to start', we seem to have forgotten the mantra of keeping the tyres of our cars at the correct pressure, or rather cycle to work and eat vegetables as all these combined and sustained efforts will have a negligible impact when measured against the daily increase in resources needed to accommodate an extra 200.000 people in the world every day.
Not all is doom and gloom though as the wealthy Europeans are stabilising and reducing levels of material consumption, our pensions will not go as far as previously and Spain for example has chosen the two pronged approach of reducing wages and at the same time increasing the VAT across the board.
What we are doing on third world countries, a convenient euphemism now that the 'second (Soviet) world' has vanished is not so clear and more difficult to keep at an arm’s length as more immigrants from Africa are coming to us over the waves in perilous embarkations.
The virtuous circle proposed must respect human rights and also reality so the moral high ground and good intentions alone are finished, so are thinking, acting and research in silos.
So what is good for the planet is fresh money spent in reproductive health, and bringing into account what the plethora of NGO are doing in their narrow 'do good fields’ by measuring significant outcomes.
A serious start has to incorporate a more multi-disciplinary system-wide approach, institutional governance, political leadership, quantification of benefits and a broad perspective, and it should start at the top by giving some thought to the fact that the WHO has seen its aims cruelly negated by the fact that more ill health inhabits the globe every day.
Competing interests: No competing interests