Showing posts from category environmental health.
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Who Are the Most Vulnerable to Ocean Acidification and Warming?
›In 2011, a record 34 billion cubic tons of carbon dioxide were emitted from man-made sources. Half the emitted CO2 stays in the atmosphere, about a quarter is absorbed on land (as trees grow, for example), and the remainder is absorbed by the ocean. Unsurprisingly, this incredible amount of carbon dioxide significantly changes the ocean environment. Over time, increased absorption of carbon dioxide in the oceans has led to ocean acidification, and overall warming has also led to warming of ocean waters – both changes impact marine ecosystems and the people who rely on them.
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Containing a Development Flood: Green Urbanization in Asia
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On April 1, 2012, a Chinese woman on her way to work suddenly felt the earth beneath her crumble and, in an instant, found herself plunging into an abyss of scalding hot water. The woman had unknowingly stepped into one of the many sinkholes appearing in China’s megacities. The emergence of sinkholes in China is part of a larger set of environmental issues related to rapid urbanization taking place in the Asia-Pacific region overall. [Video Below]
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Artisanal Gold Mining Threatens Riverine Communities in Guyana
›August 14, 2012 // By Keenan Dillard“Sometimes we make sure that we catch enough rainwater to use or we would have to search out the creeks to for water clean enough to drink,” said Guyanese villager Fabian George in a June interview with the United Nations University. The negative effects of a mining boom fueled by surging gold prices have become so widespread in the small South American country, which is about the size of Idaho, that the government has temporarily stopped issuing new gold and diamond mining permits.
The ban, which was announced on July 6 and is still in effect, will last until officials are able to complete a review “of the current management/oversight arrangement of river and tributary mining.” A statement released by the Guyanese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment explained that “damage caused by increasingly irresponsible mining in Guyana’s rivers and tributaries,” has been a cause of major concern for citizens who depend on them to survive.
Guyana, a former colony of both the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, has a population that is predominantly split between people of African and East Indian descent who were recruited as indentured servants for the tea industry during the 19th century. Amerindians – indigenous Guyanese people – made up just nine percent of the population, as of the most recent census in 2002. A vast majority of Guyanese (71.5 percent) live in rural villages, most of which are located near the coastline. The remaining population resides in the capital, Georgetown, or one of four other urban centers.
While mining is responsible for just nine percent of the country’s GDP, it accounts for almost 60 percent of exports. Gold, bauxite (the precursor to aluminum), and diamonds are extracted and exported to countries including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In 2011 Guyana produced 363,000 ounces of gold, which represents a 23 percent increase since 2009 and can be attributed “to consistently active mining by small- and medium-scale miners that benefited from the continued increase in gold prices on the international market,” according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Communities and Small Mining Initiative reports that more than 15 percent of Guyanese citizens economically depend on small-scale mining to support themselves.
Dredging the Jungle
These small-scale operations, also known as artisanal mines, generally employ rudimentary methods to extract and process minerals, as opposed to large scale industrial operations. As of 2011 there were less than 10 industrial-scale companies with any sort of presence in Guyana, while the number of licensed artisanal miners is more than 14,000, according to the government. Although the latter usually consists of just a few workers, they are also incredibly environmentally destructive.
The methods used most by artisanal miners in Guyana begin in one of two ways, according to the Blacksmith Institute: either large water hoses are used to quickly erode a plot of land or barges are used to dredge up sediment from the bottom of a river. Then, they “combine mercury with gold-laden silt to form a hardened amalgam that has picked up most of the gold metal from the silt. The amalgam is later heated with blow torches or over an open flame to evaporate the mercury, leaving small gold pieces.”
The environmental impacts of artisanal mining in Guyana are well-documented and include “drastic increases in the sediment content of river water, increased levels of mercury in river water, creation of artificial sandbars in rivers, deforestation and degradation of land fertility, and mosquito infestation and malaria,” according to a Harvard Human Rights Program study.
A report issued by the Guyanese Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment last month noted that current environmental problems associated with mining operations include, “widening of the river channel[s] and weakening of soil at river banks resulting in toppling of trees into the river course, blockages and changes to the main river channels resulting in un-navigable channels in the dry seasons.” High levels of turbidity, which is a measure of water clarity, have resulted in the deaths of some fish species that serve as a primary food source for riverine Guyanese communities.
The health of Guyanese rivers and streams is of particular concern to the Amerindians who make up the majority of the population in Guyana’s hinterlands where most artisanal mining occurs. The Harvard Human Rights Program report points out that indigenous people, most of whom survive on subsistence agriculture, are disproportionately affected due to their dependence on waterways for food, transportation, communication, and sanitation.
Adapting to a “Changing World”
Over the past few months the environmental, social, and health effects caused by gold mining in Guyana has become serious enough to warrant a temporary governmental halt to the issuance of any new licenses. In the meantime, scientists employed by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission are attempting to find a viable alternative to using mercury – the most damaging practice of artisanal miners – amid increasing pressure from the international community. In addition to polluting waterways and contaminating fish, mercury releases highly toxic vapors when it is burned away from gold, which can damage both internal organs and unborn children.
Damages from the run-away mining sector aren’t limited to the environment. The Amerindian Peoples’ Association in Guyana blames increases in prostitution, drug trafficking, and human trafficking on the country’s gold rush. According to the UN, “interior police investigated nearly 50 bush murders last year, about 40 more than normal, many from fights over gold and women or from drunken rum sprees by miners on time off.” Unlicensed mines and illegal aliens who cross the border from Brazil, compounded with a large smuggling operation that bypasses Guyanese gold taxes via Suriname, have left the government struggling to “enforce regulations, hire enough trained jungle mines inspectors, qualified geologists and other personnel to keep pace, and generally maintain order,” according to the UN.
On July 28, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission issued a statement regarding the future of mining, and stressed the need to create a “holistic plan to have the industry adapt to a changing world.” For now it seems that complaints from Amerindian groups and other Guyanese citizens are the driving force in affecting change within the country, but opposition from interest groups such as the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association is intense. The government has acknowledged international pressure too as a factor in its decision to suspend new permits and recently began a partnership with the United Nations Development Programme to develop a natural resource management plan. It remains to be seen exactly what measures will be taken to address the serious problems facing the Guyanese people as a result of gold mining, but given the strong economic imperative for artisanal miners and the severity of environmental and human health effects, action must be taken soon.
Keenan Dillard is a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point and an intern with the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program.
Sources: Amerindian Peoples Association, Blacksmith Institute, Bureau of Statistics (Guyana), Center for International Forestry Research, Central Intelligence Agency, Communities and Small-Scale Mining, The Daily Herald, Demerara Waves, Environmental Protection Agency, Guyana News and Information, Harvard Law School, Inter Press Service, Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (Guyana), National Communications Network (Guyana), Stabroek News, United Nations, U.S. Geological Survey, USAID.
Photo Credit: “Gold Mine (Mahdia, Guyana),” courtesy of flickr user caribbeanfreephoto (Georgia Popplewell). -
Royal Society Launches ‘People and the Planet’ Study
›“This is a time of rapid and multifaceted change in both population and the planet,” said Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue, a member of the U.K. Royal Society’s People and the Planet working group and contributing author to the report of the same name launched at the Wilson Center on June 4. “The question that the report is trying to address is whether we can actually envision a world in which we can sustainably and equitably meet the consumption needs of seven billion people, and the more to come.” [Video Below]The Royal Society is a self-governing fellowship of scientists that fosters research to address pressing social issues and better inform policy on a global scale. Eloundou-Enyegue, also an associate professor of development sociology at Cornell University, was joined by fellow working group member and African Institute for Development Policy Director and Founder Eliya Msiyaphazi Zulu to discuss their assessment of growing population and consumption pressures on global wellbeing.
Current Trends Are Unsustainable
“The current trends of global population growth and material consumption and the concomitant changes in the environment are unsustainable,” said Zulu.
On the population side, “you have changes that are affecting not just the size, the growth of the population, but also changes in family structure, in the population distribution, [and] population movement,” said Eloundou-Enyegue.
On the consumption side, “beyond the increase in consumption itself, there’s also a dramatic rise in aspiration,” he continued. “People are in greater contact and this tends to encourage…an increasing aspiration to mimic or to emulate the consumption standard of the more industrialized countries.”
Limits to Equitable Growth
When measuring consumption, which itself tends to be a misplaced barometer of wellbeing, according to Eloundou-Enyegue, there is a “disproportionate focus on GDP.”
Using GDP growth as a measure of consumption and wellbeing both “misses a lot of the economic production that’s not mediated through the market,” and “counts as positive things that are damaging to the planet,” he said.
The People and the Planet report marks a departure from the traditional consumption framework by asking “about the relevance of growth – is growth what we ought to be after?”
“The report tried to make a distinction between two types of consumption – the consumption of material resources and the consumption of goods and services – that are all relevant to wellbeing but have different implications for the environment,” Eloundou-Enyegue said. “So there is a need to think about how to shift or to favor consumption that is less damaging to the environment.”
Not an “Either-Or” Proposition
There is “a tendency to look at population and consumption when you’re addressing the impact of the environment in an either-or format, as if you had to choose either population as being the main culprit or consumption,” said Eloundou-Enyegue. “The reality is that they all have to be integrated and considered jointly.”
At the same time, there is “a tendency to shy away from population issues when you set development goals because they tend to be controversial,” he said. And yet, said Zulu, “there’s no question about it, the global population growth needs to be slowed down and ultimately stabilized for both people and the planet to flourish.”
The vast majority of future population growth is expected to come from Africa. Based on the United Nation’s medium variant projection, 70 percent of global population growth over the rest of the century will come from the continent.
That projection, however, belies a big assumption: “that the high fertility countries now will follow the same pattern in decline in fertility as the countries that have [already] achieved lower fertility had [in the past],” said Zulu, which “may actually not be the case.”
“You might actually find a situation where fertility might stabilize around three to four children in some of the…least developed countries,” he said, “and if that happens, it means that actually we stand a much, much bigger chance of getting to the high variant [of 15.8 billion by 2100] than we often tend to assume.”
In spite of that dire warning, however, Zulu said that “we should recognize that demography is not destiny, that through…appropriate socioeconomic and health policies and investment, we can actually slow down population growth.”
The report concludes that voluntary and non-coercive “reproductive health and family planning programs are urgently required,” said Zulu. “There is also a need for strong political leadership and financial commitment to make sure that these programs and services reach out to all women around the world who need them.”
Have We Missed the Boat Again?
Part of the urgency from the working group is because, so far, commitments to reproductive health appear to be falling short. It is the international community’s responsibility “to make sure that women have the contraceptives that they need in order to achieve their fertility aspirations,” said Zulu, but some of the most important agenda-setting events in global development over the past 20 years have sidelined population, reproductive health, and family planning.
The Millennium Development Goals, for instance, “tried to stay clear of population,” said Eloundou-Enyegue, even though “all the indicators that I see are either intrinsically demographic or have a strong demographic component.”
“If you think about stratification and the reproduction of inequality and poverty across generations and the role that differential fertility and reproduction plays, there’s no way you can sidestep population,” he continued. “If you’re talking about maternal mortality and child mortality…it doesn’t make sense to set population aside.”
Now, as the international community prepares for the upcoming Rio+20 summit, “there’s been a big struggle to get…consideration of population issues” on the agenda, said Zulu.
“Population is at the peripheral of all those discussions,” said Zulu. When in Nairobi for a preparatory conference earlier this year, Zulu said UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin “told me that he was quite alarmed that there was hardly any mention of population in all those discussions. And he asked me the question, ‘have we missed the boat again?’”
That concern reinforces the main argument of People and the Planet, said Zulu: there is an “urgent need to reduce material consumption of the richest, and increase consumption and healthcare for the poorest 1.3 billion people.”
“We’re talking about having the majority of people in the world being able to flourish, being able to lead decent lives.”
Event Resources:Photo Credit: “Market_Kampala, Uganda,” courtesy of the Hewlett Foundation. -
Nancy Lindborg, The Huffington Post
For Yemen’s Future, Global Humanitarian Response Is Vital
›June 12, 2012 // By Wilson Center StaffThe original version of this article, by Nancy Lindborg, appeared on The Huffington Post.
This weekend in Sana’a, I had dinner with a group of young men and women activists who are on the forefront of Yemen’s historic struggle for a better future. They turned out for change with great courage last year, and at dinner, with great eloquence they outlined for me the many challenges facing Yemen during this critical transition period: conflict in the north and south, weak government institutions, cultural barriers to greater women’s participation, an upended economy, and one of the world’s highest birthrates. And, as one man noted, it is difficult to engage the 70 percent of Yemeni people who live in rural areas in dialogue about the future when they are struggling just to find the basics of life: food, health, water.
His comment makes plain the rising, complex humanitarian crisis facing Yemen. At a time of historic political transition, nearly half of Yemen’s population is without enough to eat, and nearly one million children under the age of five are malnourished, putting them at greater risk of illness and disease. One in 10 Yemeni children do not live to the age of five. One in 10. This is a staggering and often untold part of the Yemen story: a story of chronic nationwide poverty that has deepened into crisis under the strain of continuing conflict and instability.
Unfortunately, in communities used to living on the edge, serious malnutrition is often not even recognized in children until they are so acutely ill that they need hospitalization.
Continue reading on The Huffington Post.
Nancy Lindborg is the assistant administrator of the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Sources: U.S. Department of State.
Photo Credit: Informal settlements near the Haddjah governorate, courtesy of E.U. Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection. -
Loaded Dice and Human Health: Measuring the Impacts of Climate Change
›In a new article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), “Insights From Past Millennia Into Climatic Impacts on Human Health and Survival,” Anthony McMichael compares scientific literature that reconstructs past climates with epidemiological research and comes away with more than a dozen examples of the influence of climate on human health and survival. “Risks to health [as a result of climatic change] are neither widely nor fully recognized,” McMichael writes, but “weather extremes and climatic impacts on food yields, fresh water, infectious diseases, conflict, and displacement” have led to human suffering across the centuries. Some of the literature reviewed, for instance, links the Younger Dryas (a several centuries long period of cooling) to hunger in the Nile Valley between 11,000 and 12,000 years ago, climatic shifts that expanded the range of disease carrying rats and fleas to the “Black Death” during the mid-1400s, and unusually strong El Niño events to a series of late Victorian-era droughts during the late-1800s.“Climate Variability and Climate Change: The New Climate Dice,” a working paper from James Hansen, Makiko Sato, and Reto Ruedy recently submitted to PNAS, uses surface air temperature analysis from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies to examine the impact of global warming on the frequency of extreme weather events. Using measurements from 1951 to 1980 as a baseline, the study finds, first, that the planet has warmed by around half of a degree Celsius since the reference period, and second, that the global area affected by “extreme anomalies” (exceeding three standard deviations from the mean climate) has increased by a factor greater than 10. Affecting approximately 10 percent of global land surface in the last several years, these anomalies, such as the droughts and heat waves observed in Texas in 2011, Moscow in 2010, and France in 2003, “almost certainly would not have occurred in the absence of the global warming,” according to the authors.
The study uses this new evidence about the impact of climate change to update the concept of climate change as a “loading of the climate dice.” Where, the “climate of 1951-1980 [is represented] by colored dice with two sides red for ‘hot,’ two side blue for ‘cold,’ and two sides white for near average temperature,” and the dice themselves represent the chance of observing variations on mean temperature. Under this metaphor, today’s climate is best approximated by a dice with four sides red, one blue, and one white, according to the study.
As for the future, the data suggest that with just one full degree of warming, anomalies three deviations beyond the mean will be the norm, and five deviations beyond the mean will become more likely (the latest IPCC projections suggest between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius are likely). In essence, the red side of the die are not only multiplying, but becoming much more extreme. To put this into scale, the Moscow 2010 heat wave, an event that exceeded the three deviations mark, coincided with a doubling of the death rate in the Russian capital. -
Geoff Dabelko On ‘The Diane Rehm Show’ Discussing Global Water Security
›April 13, 2012 // By Wilson Center StaffECSP Director Geoff Dabelko was recently a guest on The Diane Rehm Show to discuss the just-released U.S. intelligence community assessment of world water security. He was joined by co-panelists retired Maj. Gen. Richard Engel (USAF) of the National Intelligence Council’s Environment and Natural Resources Program (a key figure in preparing the report), Jessica Troell of the International Water Program at the Environmental Law Institute, and Steve Fleischli of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The Department of State-requested assessment (outlined in more detail, here and here) is a very positive contribution, said Dabelko. It “moves away from the arm-waving, headline-grabbing, water wars frame – the kind of sky-is-falling frame that is intuitively appealing and certainly appealing for politicians and headline writers, but doesn’t really reflect the reality.” He continued:What this report instead does, is recognize that there’s been an awful lot of cooperation around water even in the face of scarcity and that that cooperation in part helps us avoid conflicts, whether they’re violent or political, and that we should invest in those institutions that help us get to cooperation.
Visit the show’s program page to listen to the full segment, or read the transcript here.
It also suggests that it’s inadequate and incorrect to think of water as just a single-sector issue. The report is quite clear in connecting it to energy, connecting it to food, connecting it to health, economic development, agriculture obviously, and so that recognition [in] analysis sounds in some way straightforward, but unfortunately, when we organize our responses, we often respond in sector, and there’s not nearly enough communication and cooperation.
And finally, the report does say that the future may not look like the past, and so while we don’t have evidence of states fighting one another over water – and the judgment of the report is in the next 10 years, we won’t see that – it does hold out the prospect for as we go farther down the line, in terms of higher levels of consumption and higher levels of population, that we need to pay special attention because there’s some particular river basins in parts of the world where, as I said, the future may not look like the past and we have greater concerns for higher levels of conflict.
Sources/Image Credit: The Diane Rehm Show. -
More People, Less Biodiversity? The Complex Connections Between Population Dynamics and Species Loss
›March 8, 2012 // By Laurie Mazur“For if one link in nature’s chain might be lost, another and another might be lost, till this whole system of things should vanish by piece-meal.”
~ Thomas Jefferson, 1799This much is clear: As human numbers have grown, the number of species with whom we share the planet has declined dramatically. While it took about 200,000 years for humanity to reach one billion people around 1800, world population has grown sevenfold since then, surpassing seven billion last year.
