PLANETARY HEALTH WEEKLY

Neither the Biodiversity Crisis nor Climate Change are hoaxes or the result of some left-wing conspiracy, whatever the absurdist wing of certain political parties would have you believe. They both need to be taken very seriously indeed. Ignoring the science is a road to disaster, especially when it is based on wilful ignorance. Nature is implacable, however inconvenient this may

While recent floods in cities around the world have raised the profile of the ‘sponge city’ concept, looking ahead perhaps the whole future of rivers should receive more attention. As with other natural features the overwhelming approach of contemporary ‘development’ up to now has been to emphasize hydro power, flood-control and navigation, while the value of biodiversity and the natural

How many people can the planet support? Call it the carrying capacity for spaceship earth. Currently there are over 8 billion (mid 2023) and we will reach 9 billion in the next 15 years. The Carrying Capacity according to studies presented in Wikipedia suggests the range is just two to four billion people. There are many estimates of how many the planet

Blowing the whistle is a shorthand phrase meaning ‘halt the action; something is wrong’. In sport it usually denotes a foul. In real life whistleblowers raise the alarm when they see powerful forces falling short of standards they have set themselves – either by breaking the law or failing to adhere to common standards. Perhaps the most celebrated – or

As I indicated last time, one of the problems with the Polluter Pays principle is that economists seem to have been particularly dilatory in finding appropriate ways to implement it. As a result, so many products whose manufacture cause excess carbon emissions, noxious air pollution or the fouling of lakes, rivers and even aquifers, escape penalty when sold, distorting the business

(in the Planetary Health Weekly Vol. 9, No. 37, September 14, 2023) Part of the problem in making sense of the conflicts over climate change and the biodiversity crises is that there is not only a polarisation of opinions, but these opinions are based on very different principles. I have been concerned for some time about morality in the business

(in the Planetary Health Weekly, Vol. 9, No. 41, October 12, 2023) Polluter Pays is the idea that any party, such as a business, that causes environmental damage or pollution is held responsible for any costs borne by the community at large including specific victims. If a chicken farm pollutes a river so that fishermen downstream lose their livelihoods the principle

Continued from Part A (PHW July 3, 2023) The Plughole Problem appears in relation to most aspects of climate change and the biodiversity crises; you may have recognised it as a regular theme of mine. It’s the obsession with new ideas while ignoring the old harmful ones which still go on causing trouble – finding new taps to open while

As you may have noticed there’s been a good deal of hullabaloo about plastics in the environment recently, with various meetings and conferences aiming to produce ‘a binding international plastics treaty’. All very laudable and at the least attracting attention to the worldwide problem of plastic waste that affects virtually all living things, killing and debilitating many of them. Reading

If we are to counter the accelerating global biodiversity crisis, protecting the richest and the largest areas of undamaged nature should be among our highest priorities. Tropical forests contain an estimated 80% of terrestrial biodiversity, much of it undocumented, and their wholesale degradation or conversion into pastures or cropland must be reduced and as soon as possible eliminated altogether. Since