Green Plans, Revised Ed: Blueprint for a Sustainable Earth

3. Health Plus Environment Equals Security

One of the great policy successes of the late twentieth century was the recognition of the prevention of chronic and latent disease as a legitimate and important job for government. Another was the acceptance of the need for public initiatives to protect the environment for future generations. Both of these accomplishments depended on the premise that the future . . . is important. —Frank Ackerman and Lisa Heinzerling One of the major factors drawing together communities, societies, and nations is, and has been throughout history, a common need for security. Thus, we could think of security as the basis of politics and a definer of history. Traditionally, security has been thought of mostly in military terms. Lately, we’ve begun to recognize that security is also closely entwined with environment. Recent examples include the devastating tidal wave that killed thousands in Asia or the effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. chapter three Health Plus Environment Equals Security 50 | defining the problem and its solution A glance through history, with its rise and fall of civilizations , offers ample proof that the two are intimately related. Civilizations as advanced as the Maya, for example, in Central America, are thought to have died out because of a combination of environmental stress, which culminated in crop failure and disease, along with exhaustion from warfare and social decadence. In dry areas, irrigation, the means by which deserts can be made to bloom, can, over time, poison the soil and kill the crops needed for survival. Advanced civilizations, such as the Ancient Puebloans in the American Southwest, disappeared during the course of a period of prolonged drought. Another, more lush example is Easter Island, where in just a few centuries the islanders wiped out or devoured their forest , plants, and animals, denuding the sixty-four-square-acre island and reducing their complex society to poverty and cannibalism .1 Now, in our own time, when acid rain from the smokestacks of English factories can render lifeless entire systems of Scandinavian lakes, we can clearly see a direct link between environmental pollution and a threat to a major food source. When citizens can’t eat fish, breathe air, or drink water without hurting their health, we can see that the environmental problem is becoming a problem of security in a very personal sense. security threats: personal and national Certain diseases have surfaced recently and become recognized as national security threats, which can affect tourism and travel, as in the case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (sars), and whole economies and trade, as in the case of Mad Cow Disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy). Thanks perhaps to an increasingly warming earth, diseases such as the mosquito borne West Nile Fever, are spreading from Africa all the way to the coast of California bringing with it, on currents of warmer than normal air, exotic disease and death. In some areas, now health plus environment equals security | 51 as in history, the carrying capacity of the land has collapsed. Populations have outgrown their land’s ability to support them. Sudan is an example. Having consumed their forests, the various tribes struggled to meet their needs in the face of drought. In the ensuing civil war, tens of thousands have perished or been relocated. So, to look beyond the immediate political problems, we can see that environmental mismanagement combined with economic and religious conflicts can lead to a collapse of security with catastrophic results. As amply recorded in the past, when environmental degradation threatens the health and happiness of populations, security breaks down. Health and environment, therefore, are crucial factors in personal and national security. the example of mercury Without presenting all of the myriad examples of the impact of environmental degradation on human health, I will look at just one example in detail, mercury, as it affected the people of Minimata, Japan, in the fifties. This story in its familiarity, prevalence, and gravity stands as one example of a polluting industry that is capable of devastating the health of a population , but then begins to accept responsibility. First, some general facts about mercury. Mercury contamination is becoming a worldwide, frightening reality that affects industrialized areas and pristine wilderness alike. For example, in the vast expanses of the Arctic Circle , indigenous people are being poisoned by the high mercury levels found in the fish they catch and the animals they hunt for food. Because mercury is a byproduct of one of...