UNITED NATIONS, March 3 – World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the level of pollution on Earth as alarming, putting the planet's health at risk.
The head of the WHO reiterated the urgent situation of the environment in which we live, where the health of people is suffering, as is the health of the planet.
If Earth were a patient, she would be admitted to intensive care, her vital signs were alarming, Tedros told a dozen African leaders and ministers from around the world.
There are fevers, and each of the past nine months has been the hottest on record, and their lung capacity has been compromised because forests that absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen have been destroyed, the WHO official said.
He also recalled that many of the Earth's water sources – its vital element – are contaminated, warning that the most worrying thing of all is that their condition is rapidly deteriorating2.
As examples of this reality, he cited successive heat waves that lead to more cardiovascular disease, while air pollution causes lung cancer, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Chemical products such as lead also cause intellectual disabilities and cardiovascular and kidney diseases, while drought and water shortages affect food production and make healthy diets less affordable, he stressed.
Climate change is also causing changes in the behavior, distribution, movement, range and intensity of mosquitoes, birds and other animals that spread infectious diseases such as dengue and malaria to new areas.
In addition, illegal wildlife trade increases the risk of zoonotic infection, which can trigger another pandemic.
Tedros insisted that the causes of this crisis, as well as its effects, are multi-sectoral in nature and that the response to them must also be a multi-sectoral one.
We got into this mess together. We have to get out of here together. No country or authority can do this alone, he warned.
The United Nations Environmental Assembly is the highest decision-making body in this area worldwide. It meets every two years to shape global environmental policy and also determine the work of the United Nations Environment Program in the months following its implementation.
In total, around seven thousand delegates from 182 United Nations member states and more than 170 ministers took part in the event, which took place from February 26 to March 1 in the capital of Kenya. (Text and photo: PL)