Back

Draft Briefing Paper 05-1-95

IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN HEALTH

Summary of the Problem

The twin driving forces of the current global change are population growth and technological development that is incompatible with natural systems. Severe social dislocations may result in secondary health effects that may have at least as great an impact on the primary health effects and will likely have more. The concept of sustainable development is a critical paradigm and ultimately the only viable strategy for maintaining human and ecosystem health.

Canadian Recommendations1-4

• Recognition of current environmental problems that are generated from human activities in the contemporary economy;
• Adoption of sustainable development patterns;
• Establishment of a national strategy and a action plan for promoting sustainable development;
• Promotion of the concept of sustainable development as an economic as well as ecological imperative;
• Improvement of energy conservation and efficiency, and development of alternative transportation fuels;
• Elimination of environmentally harmful policies, practices and materials;
• Improvement of planning and management systems in economic and business development, waste management and reduction, urban development, land use and development, and water quality supply and treatment;
• Control of over-consumption of energy through promoting activities such as recycling, reuse and reduction;
• Development and implementation of the public education programs for the responsibilities in sustainable development and participation in environmental action.

Demographic Change

Communities and countries under pressures from fast unrestrained population growth face overwhelming obstacles to achieving a sustainable future and quality of life. Estimates by the World Bank and the United Nations indicate that the world population will grow from a current population of 5 billion to 6 billion in just 10 years and that the total population of the world could eventually reach 14 billion in the next century.5-8 More than 95% of all the increases in world population by 2025 will take place in developing societies. Rapid urbanization has become a serious problem in these regions.9 The large scale population growth in environmental fragile areas and economically distressed regions continues to contribute to migration to the adjacent regions or developed nations.

This increase of population and its consequent effect in migration continues to threaten the ability of society to halt the destruction of our environment, to achieve ecologically sound economic development, to improve health care, to provide education and social welfare, to provide food and energy, and to avoid conflict in both developed and developing societies.9-11 A profound implication for health is that the spread of some diseases (such as acute respiratory infections, epidemic infectious diseases, and sexually transmitted diseases), high prevalence of adverse reproductive outcomes and malnutrition, and poor primary health care are exacerbated by overpopulation.9,11-20 Population movements could introduce, disseminate or facilitate new biological agents into other populations.21 Some emerging infectious diseases, for example, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and some haemorrhagic fevers, are frequently attributed to such demographic change because they are associated with the environment of human settlements into previously marginal habitats.21-22

One of the most promising avenues for population stabilization, and a necessary concomitant for any successful program, is national development (carefully planned) and, especially, reduction of infant mortality, and improvement in the education, health, status of women in society, and decline of fertility.23-24 This demographic characteristics dramatically alter the age structure. Population in developed regions becomes stable and ageing as compared to the young age structure in developing regions.14,24

It is well known that as nations become more affluent the birth rate drops and population growth declines. The magnitude of the so-called "demographic transition," although initially promising, has been insufficient to keep world population under 5 billion. Even so, the demographic transition is based on the decisions of individuals in the population. As the death rate declines and personal security increases, these people are in an economic position to voluntarily limit their reproduction. This represents one instance in which collective individual judgement results in a rational and productive direction for the society as a whole.

A major source of pressure on the environment is the expectation by a larger segment of the world's population for a lifestyle approximating that of developed countries. This desire reflects historic human aspirations that are no less valid for citizens of developing societies than they were for those of presently developed societies in the past. This increasing level of expectation imposes an increasing demand for materials foreign to the Earth's degradation mechanisms and a voracious appetite for fossil fuels from ever-increasing need for transportation, heating, and economic activities. For example, with rapid economic development and increasing population, energy demand in China in the next decade would be 3.9 times that in 1990.25 Currently carbon dioxide emissions in China account for 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Already, nearly 40% of the potential terrestrial net primary product from photosynthesis is used directly, diverted or foregone because of human activity.26

An important and innovative research center for documenting these changes particularly those in which demographic and resource issues converge, is the Worldwatch Institute of Washington DC, which provides a series of meticulously compiled reports on these issues.

Society and Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is a concept critical to understanding proposals for solutions to the problem of large-scale ecological degradation and resource depletion. Briefly, the concept, originated by the United Nations World Commission on the Environment and Development,20 involves establishing an economic structure that ideally consumes only as much as the natural environment produces and emits only as much as the natural environment can absorb.

This is accomplished by reducing consumption and the scale of economic development, recycling materials, and reusing as much product as possible. Ideally, the process may also contribute an environmental benefit by making it economically attractive to control pollution, to remediate contaminated sites, to reconstruct ecosystems that have been damaged beyond natural capacity to repair and to establish protected zones for the maintenance of "environmental services" (natural ecological process such as water collection, carbon fixing, wildlife protection, and air quality buffering). This would require establishing an economic structure that takes into account environmental benefits and costs and values of ecological processes to human communities. This economic structure is sustainable in the sense that it can be sustained from one generation to another. A framework of health and sustainable development is an intricate network, which involves the natural environment, the community and the human economy.27-28

Since World War II, the basic technologies of industry, agriculture and transportation have developed in such a way that they are drastically incompatible with natural environmental cycles and processes. The search for more profitable production and marketing has led to lopsided technology, successful at meeting narrowly defined goals but miserably failing to accommodate natural systems. There are numerous examples of recent changes in automotive design, electric power generation, packaging and bottling, manufacturing processes, and farming practices that are self-defeating in the total ecosystem. Such economic growth has generated substantial environmental damage in relation to small world population size and as a function of affluence.29 The various forms of environmental pollution pose a threat to human health. In 1992, about 70,000 substances had an health effect information on file that pose.30 While recognizing the important role of individual life style and population stabilization, the single most important factor in achieving environmental reconstruction in developed societies is probably control over technology and its rational use.31-34

The situation is somewhat different in less developed nations. Population has played a much more important role in impeding the achievement of a tolerable quality of life outside the "developed" (or, in the view of many, "overdeveloped") societies. An environmental impact in these nations may result from the drive to develop a competitive market economy or at the most basic level of the demand to provide food, fuel, water and shelter. As population and economic growth occur, demand has switched to protein-rich foods from basic food, accompanied with a greater increase demand on the land and water resources, for example. Environmental damage may be exacerbated as income climbs.

As resources have been depleted in some parts of the world, the people who previously lived in these places have had to leave when their environment could no longer sustain them. The "ecological refugees" may represent a substantial burden on the receiving societies, particularly with respect to the provision of food and health care. It may be expected that civil strife and international conflicts may be substantially aggravated by food shortages and by population pressure.35-37 The problems of controlling infectious disease in famine affected populations,38 now mostly the result of displacement during warfare, may become considerably worse in the face of widespread crop failure and economic collapse.

Canada and Canada's Place in the World

Canada is a huge but sparsely-populated country, covering 9 million square kilometers of land and with a rich legacy of energy resources.39 In recent year, the demography of Canada has changed. The total natural birth rate has dramatically declined. This pronounced reduction with the increased life expectancy accelerates the ageing of society.40-41 Net migration of population substantially affects the demographic characteristics now and is the driving force behind Canada's resent increase in population. People immigrate to Canada from diverse places in the world. About 77% of immigration population live in urban areas.39 Historically, this immigration enhances economic efficiency in the society.42

As compared to its rather small population (about 27 million people), Canada and Canadians consume enormous amounts of the world's natural resources. Consumption of the world's resources for a Canadian baby over its lifetime will be about 70 times that in Bangladesh.43 The energy industry plays an important role in Canada's economy. Although Canada has improved its energy efficiency in constructing buildings, the use of renewable energy such as solar, wind and biomass energy accounts for only 7% of the total energy needs.39 The overexploitation of nonrenewable energy such as fossil fuels and other mineral resources implies the depletion of natural resources for the future generations' needs and the generation of much more wastes into the environment that is either necessary in the short term economy or sustainable over the long term.

Canada also has an exceptionally respected position among the family of nations. Canadian initiates to reduce the impact of individual Canadians on their local ecosystem and the global ecosystem will hold hope and moral authority for the rest of the world.

References

1. Standing Committee on Environment. Our Planet ... Our Future. Minutes of Proceedings and Evidence of the Standing Committee on Environment, House of Commons, Canada, Issue No. 72, 1993.
2. Standing Committee on Environment. Environment and the Constitution. Minutes of Proceedings and Evidence of the Standing Committee on Environment, House of Commons, Canada, 1992.
3. Tomalty R, Pell D. Sustainable Development and Canadian Cities: Current Initiatives. For the Centre for Future Studies in Housing and Living Environments of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Canadian Global Change Program CGCP Incidental Report series No. IR94-1, The Royal Society of Canada, June 1994.
4. ClÈment PSRL. National Overview of Strategic Development in Canada's Provinces and Territories. Ottawa, May 1993.
5. United Nations Population Division. World Population Projections to 2025. Geneva: United Nations Population Division, 1989.
6. World Bank. World Development Report 1992: Development and the Environment. Oxford University Press, New York, 1992.
7. United Nations Population Fund. The State of World Population 1993. United Nations Population Fund, New York, 1993.
8. World Bank. World Development Report 1993: Investing in Health. Oxford University Press, New York, 1993.
9. Rossi-Espagnet A, Goldstein G.B, Tabibzadeh I. Urbanization and Health Developing Countries: a Challenge for Health for All. World Health Stat Q 1991; 44:187-244.
10. Myers N. Population, Environment, and Development. Environ Conserv 1993; 20:205-216.
11. Robert WK. World Food Security: Prospects and Trends. Food Policy 1994; 19:192-208.
12. WHO Commission on Health and Environment. Our Planet, Our Health. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1992.
13. Soeters R, Nzala S. Primary Health Care Trading Companies for Sustainable Development. World Health Forum 1994; 15:51-55.
14. Lincoin DW. Reproductive Health, Population Growth, Economic Development and Environmental Change. Ciba Found Symp 1993; 175:197-212.
15. Wijeyaratne PM, Arsenault LKJ, Murphy CJ. Endemic Disease and Development: the Leishmaniases. Acta Tropica 1994; 56:349-364.
16. Bongaarts J. Can the growing Human Population Feed Itself? Sci Am 1994; 270:36-42.
17. Holloway M. A Global View. Sci Am 1994; 271:77-83.
18. Sen G, Germain A, Chen LC. (eds.) Population Policies Reconsidered Health, Empowerment, and Rights, Harvard School of Public Health, 1994.
19. Mastroianni AC, Faden R, Federman D. (eds.) Women and Health Research: Ethical, and Legal Issues of Including Women in Clinical Studies, National Academy Press, 1994.
20. United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common Future. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
21. Haines A, Epstein PR, McMichael AJ. Global Health Watch: Monitoring Impacts of Environmental Change. Lancet 1994; 342:1464-1469.
22. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Update: Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome United States 1993. JAMA 1993; 270:2287-2288.
23. Green CP. The Environment and Population Growth: Decade for Action. Population Reports (Population Information Program of the Center for Communication Programs, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore), May 1992; Series M (10):1-32.
24. United Nations. Demographic Yearbook: Population Ageing and the Situation of Elderly Persons. Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis, Statistical Division, New York, 1993.
25. Wei Z. Energy and Carbon Dioxide Emission Scenarios for China. Int J Glob Energy Issues 1994; 6:72-80.
26. Vitousek PM, Ehrlich PR, Ehrlich AH, Matson PA. Human Appropriation of the Products of Photosynthesis. Bio Sci 1986; 36:368-373.
27. Labonté R. A Holosphere of Healthy and Sustainable Communities. Aust J Public Health 1993; 17:4-12.
28. Gosselin P, Bélanger D, Bibeault J, Webster A. Indicators for Sustainable Society. Can J Public Health 1993; 84:197-200.
29. Jolly R. UNICEF Policy and Perspectives: Child Survival, Population Growth, Environment and Development. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1993; 87 (Suppl 1): S32-S35.
30. Lorque EB. Critical Technologies and New Enabling Materials: Environmental Impacts and Policy Implications. U.S. EPA (unpublished document), 1992.
31. van Ettinger J. Sustainable Use of Energy: a Normative Energy Scenario: 1990-2050. Energy Policy 1994; 22:111-118.
32. Pimentel D. Achieving a Secure Energy Future: Environmental and Economic Issues. Ecol Econ 1994; 9:201-209.
33. Anderson WP. Energy and the Environment: the New Case for Conservation. Energy Stud Rev 1994; 6:16-33.
34. Finon D. From Energy Security to Environmental Protection: Understanding Swings in the Energy Policy Pendulum. Energy Stud Rev 1994; 1-15.
35. Hazarika S. Bangladesh and Asia: Land Pressures, Migration, and Global Conflict. Cambridge, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Occasional Paper Series of the Project on Environmental Change and Acute Conflict, No. 3, March 1993.
36. Suhrke A. U. Pressure Points: Environmental Degradation, Migration, and Conflict. Cambridge MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Occasional Paper Series of the Project on Environmental Change and Acute Conflict, No. 3, March 1993.
37. Homer-Dioxin TF, Boutwell JH, Rathjens GW. Environmental Change and Violent Conflict. Sci Amer 1993; 269:38-44.
38. Famine-affected, Refugee, and Displaced Populations: Recommendations for Public Health Issue. MMWR [Spec Rep] 1992; 41:(RR-13).
39. Statistic Canada. Canada Year Book 1994. The Communication Division of Statistics Canada, Ottawa, 1994.
40. Belous RS. Demographic Currents: Trends and Issues that Face the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. British-North American Committee, Occasional Paper No. 7, 1991.
41. Foot D. Immigration and Demographic Change in Canada. In: Migration - The Demographic aspects. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, 1991, pp69-71.
42. Swan N, Auer L, Chenard D, dePlaa A, deSilva A, Palmer D, Serjak J. Economic and Social Impacts of Immigration. A Research report Prepared for the Economic council of Canada, Ottawa, 1991.
43. Suzuki D. Mother Earth Must See a Drop in Consumption. Guelph Mercury 1993; pA9. (Cited in Standing Committee on Environment. Our Planet ... Our Future. Minutes of Proceedings and Evidence of the Standing Committee on Environment, House of Commons, Canada, Issue No. 72, 1993).

About Us | Children's Health | Toxics | Greening Health Care | Climate Change
Regulatory Reform | Resources | Contact | Membership | Home