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Importance of Environment Essay | Essay on Importance of Environment for Students and Children

February 13, 2024 by Prasanna

Importance of Environment Essay: One of the important aspects of living a long healthy life is to protect our environment from the harmful gases, chemicals, and wastes that we use every day. The atmosphere is where both living and non-living things live in. The environment has different definitions for people. While some consider the environment to be nature, others seem to look forward to it as wilderness and landscapes. Some people think of rural areas, forests, and greenery as the environment. The assembly of the rural regions, urban areas, the diverse images, landscapes, all living and non-living things, the wild, forests, and more consists of our environment. Anything surrounding us is a part of our environment. It is the geographical area, and we often call it our surroundings. Plants, air, water, soil, animals, birds, oceans, human beings, and every other minute creature forms our environment.

The three main factors that constantly affect our environment are the hydrologic process, atmospheric process, and geomorphic process. The relation between nature and living beings is known as ecology. When the environmental cycle is maintained, it is easy to live a healthy life-supporting to nurture and care for the animals and birds. However, as humans, it is our responsibility to keep our nature at its best. Almost every country wants to develop its economy, and to do so, biodiversity and its maintenance are very important. Governmental organizations and various other environment protection groups conduct awareness programs every year to save and preserve our environment. Laws are incorporated for better public response and awareness.

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Short Essay on Importance of Environment 150 Words in English

Short Essay on Importance of Environment is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

For millions of years, nature provides us everything to live a better life and start from clothes, food, light, air, and furniture to beautiful landscapes, waterfalls, and forests. The ecosystem helps us with agriculture and grow crops and vegetables. Our waste products were absorbed and decomposed as compost for agriculture. Humans were served by the environment in several ways and are still using nature for various personal uses.

Today the pressure of high population and so many people are taking a toll on nature and creating a lot of stress. The entire system of living beings around the Globe is collapsing. Our planet’s biosystem, which consists of both the chemical and physical environment, is constantly changing, causing our world to deplete gradually. Earlier, humans could not cause much damage the environment, and if they did, it was on a small area of land. However, today the human population is constantly increasing with various technological advancements, automobiles, and more. Today, the environment is about farm fields and agriculture, but it consists of the entire planet. They are thus resulting in a complete disruption and misbalance in our ecosystem. Without realizing the long term consequences, modern people are still continuously using different means of hazardous elements that adversely affect our nature.

Over the years, people were concerned about their health, living conditions, various diseases, pandemics, famines, accidents, and vector borne diseases. The farming and domesticating animals formed new contagious disorders among people, creating new challenges for better health among people.

With the advancement of technologies and the development of industries, various water-borne and other diseases were prevented. However, it adversely affects the environment by using harmful gases, chemicals, and building wastes. The trade and commerce, industries, and other factories paved the way for humans to leave the agricultural field and step into the technological world. The air, water, and soil pollution is affecting the environment, and it is damaging rapidly. Harmful greenhouse gases are causing the greenhouse effect. The protective ozone layer is depleting, causing the sun’s direct ultra-violet rays to enter the Earth and cause the snow to melt and produce serious skin diseases infections among animals and humans.

Ecology is the study of plants and animals and how they work together to balance nature. Humans must be responsible and use nature efficiently and only to survive for causing less damage. Various animals are going into extinction because of lack of trees, increased pollution, use of electronic gadgets and waves. The birds that once migrated to the urban areas from the rural districts were now seen nowhere because of the harmful emissions from the industries and the electronic waves through mobile phones and internet connections. This imbalance of nature is causing serious complications and danger for a long-lasting life on Earth.

Long Essay on Importance of Environment 500 Words in English

Long Essay on Importance of Environment is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

The environment Essay is an important part of our life, without which the living things couldn’t survive on Earth. However, several issues are disrupting the ecosystem of the environment and causing damage to living beings. The main reason behind such a condition was that humans misused nature and the technology that they settled their lifestyle. Greenhouse effect, global warming, pollution, and various other harmful toxic wastes from industries are the side effects of nature damage. Humans’ everyday activities like washing clothes using chemical detergents, using chemicals like fertilizers, and using colors in vegetables are degrading environmental quality.

There are various reasons behind the decline of our environment. However, some of the issues are causing serious complications in our ecosystem, resulting in a threat to life and the ecosystem. Pollution is one of the major causes that affect the soil, air, and water, degrading the quality of nature. In the past few decades, industries’ formation has led to the use and emission of harmful chemicals, gases, and compounds dumped in the river or waterfronts or thrown on the soil. The use of plastics is detrimental to our nature, as it doesn’t decompose in the ground. The poisonous gases that are left in the air cause serious breathing problems and even death. Various such cases of mass death have occurred previously in places like Bhopal and Chernobyl, which has caused death and serious health complications in common people living in the surrounding areas.

Greenhouse gases are another major factor responsible for destroying the ecosystem of our environment. These gases are responsible for increasing the temperature. With the growing number of vehicles on the road every year, greenhouse gas release is constantly growing, causing serious temperature changes on our planet. However, various precautions are planned by the government to reduce the number of use of vehicles. However, to completely incorporate the laws might still take several years. The excessive emission of harmful gases is a direct result of changing climate. Every day, acid rains, smog are becoming a common phenomenon. In the few years, natural calamities like drought, earthquakes, famines, floods, landslides, and heavy snowfall are increasing rapidly and disturbing nature’s free flow. Human beings’ need for a better life and luxury is constantly growing, thereby hampering our ecosystem.

Various ways can help to resolve the issues of environmental damage. However, an individual can’t make a change. It might take years and millions of people to make a change. There are few ways to save the environment easily and various animals on our planet. Reforestation helps restore nature’s natural flow and balance the ecosystem. The underground water is often disturbed by deforestation or cutting down excessive trees; therefore, maintaining the groundwater recharge works well with Reforestation. Plants take in carbon dioxide, which helps to reduce the number of greenhouse gases in the air. The best way to care for the environment is to follow the principle of three R. Reducing plastics, reusing the plastic products until it is entirely damaged and recycling the damaged plastics, are the best way to save our environment. Reuse, reduce, and recycle are practiced in various schools and localities to keep our nature safe.

The imbalance of nature is the result of the destruction of the environment in advanced technologies. Industrial companies emit harmful smoke that is polluting the air every day. The inhalation of toxic air is impacting the health of animals, humans, and other living beings. Today, humans are leading a fast life, making it impossible for people to make efforts to bring a change. It is important to keep the environment safe and clean by following some rules. We can get water, air and pure greenery with a better and healthy atmosphere. Children can stay happy and safe living in a healthy surrounding. Children learn to keep their house and surroundings clean when they grow up in a hygienic environment.

Today, various laws are made by the government to decrease noise pollution. Many companies are building eco-friendly vehicles to reduce air pollution. The use of polythene and plastics is banned in various malls. Throwing wastes on the road is a felony in many countries. People must make it a habit to repair the broken items and reuse them. Fluorescent lights or alkaline lights are best to use by replacing the battery lights. Many houses use solar panels for electricity. To maintain a better environment, less waste of water, low electricity consumption, rainwater harvesting, Reforestation is some of the best ideas to adopt.

Importance of Environment Essay Conclusion

The environment is very important for all living things, including humans. It harms all human activities and health. The new technologies every day has made human life comfortable. However, these interventions cause different kinds of pollution, making the environment unsafe and unfit for living beings to stay healthy. Various types of diseases are formed that often turn contagious and serious panic among people. Therefore, every citizen around the world needs to come forward and use eco-friendly products for daily use. Less use of electricity, battery, and proper recycling of plastic products can bring better environmental changes. It is our responsibility to keep the Earth beautiful for future generations to come.

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Essay on Environment: Examples & Tips

• Updated on  
• May 30, 2022

In the 21st century, the Environmental crisis is one of the biggest issues. The world has been potentially impacted by the resulting hindrance in the environmental balance, due to the rising in industrialization and urbanization. This led to several natural calamities which creates an everlasting severe impact on the environment for years. To familiarize students with the importance environment, the subject ‘Environmental Studies’ is part of the curriculum in primary, secondary as well as higher school education. To test the knowledge of the students related to Environment, a question related to the topic in the form of essay or article writing is included in the exam. This blog aims to focus on providing details to students on the way, they can draft a well-written essay on Environment.

This Blog Includes:

Overview on environment, tips on writing an effective essay, format (150 words), sample essay on environment, environment essay (100 words), essay on environment (200-250 words), environment essay (300 words), world environment day.

To begin the essay on Environment, students must know what it is all about. Biotic (plants, animals, and microorganisms) and abiotic (non-living physical factors) components in our surroundings fall under the terminology of the environment. Everything that surrounds us is a part of the environment and facilitates our existence on the planet.

Before writing an effective essay on Environment, another thing students need to ensure is to get familiarised with the structure of essay writing. The major tips which students need to keep in mind, while drafting the essay are:

• Research on the given topic thoroughly : The students must research the topic given in the essay, for example: while drafting an essay on the environment, students must mention the recent events, so to provide the reader with a view into their understanding of this concept.
• Jot down the important points: When the students research the topic, students must note down the points which need to be included in the essay.
• Quote down the important examples: Students must quote the important examples in the introductory paragraphs and the subsequent paragraphs as well.
• Revise the Essay: The student after finishing writing students must revise the content to locate any grammatical errors as well as other mistakes.

Essay on Environment: Format & Samples

Now that you are aware of the key elements of drafting an essay on Environment, take a look at the format of essay writing first:

Introduction

The student must begin the essay by, detailing an overview of the topic in a very simple way in around 30-40 words. In the introduction of the essay on Environment, the student can make it interesting by recent instances or adding questions.

Body of Content

The content after the introduction can be explained in around 80 words, on a given topic in detail. This part must contain maximum detail in this part of the Essay. For the Environment essay, students can describe ways the environment is hampered and different ways to prevent and protect it.

In the essay on Environment, students can focus on summing the essay in 30-40 words, by writing its aim, types, and purposes briefly. This section must swaddle up all the details which are explained in the body of the content.

Below is a sample of an Essay on Environment to give you an idea of the way to write one:

The natural surroundings that enable life to thrive, nurture, and destroy on our planet called earth are referred to as an environment. The natural environment is vital to the survival of life on Earth, allowing humans, animals, and other living things to thrive and evolve naturally. However, our ecosystem is being harmed as a result of certain wicked and selfish human actions. It is the most essential issue, and everyone should understand how to safeguard our environment and maintain the natural balance on this planet for life to continue to exist.

Nature provides an environment that nourishes life on the planet. The environment encompasses everything humans need to live, including water, air, sunshine, land, plants, animals, forests, and other natural resources. Our surroundings play a critical role in enabling the existence of healthy life on the planet. However, due to man-made technical advancements in the current period, our environment is deteriorating day by day. As a result, environmental contamination has risen to the top of our priority list.

Environmental pollution has a detrimental impact on our everyday lives in a variety of ways, including socially, physically, economically, emotionally, and cognitively. Contamination of the environment causes a variety of ailments that can last a person’s entire life. It is not a problem of a neighborhood or a city; it is a global issue that cannot be handled by a single person’s efforts. It has the potential to end life in a day if it is not appropriately handled. Every ordinary citizen should participate in the government’s environmental protection effort.

Between June 5 and June 16, World Environment Day is commemorated to raise awareness about the environment and to educate people about its importance. On this day, awareness initiatives are held in a variety of locations.

The environment is made up of plants, animals, birds, reptiles, insects, water bodies, fish, humans, trees, microbes, and many other things. Furthermore, they all contribute to the ecosystem.

The physical, social, and cultural environments are the three categories of environments. Besides, various scientists have defined different types and numbers of environments.

1. Do not leave rubbish in public areas. 2. Minimize the use of plastic 3. Items should be reduced, reused, and recycled. 4. Prevent water and soil contamination

Hope the blog has given you an idea of how to write an essay on the Environment. If you are planning to study abroad and want help in writing your essays, then let Leverage Edu be your helping hand. Our experts will assist you in writing an excellent SOP for your study abroad consultant application. 

Sonal is a creative, enthusiastic writer and editor who has worked extensively for the Study Abroad domain. She splits her time between shooting fun insta reels and learning new tools for content marketing. If she is missing from her desk, you can find her with a group of people cracking silly jokes or petting neighbourhood dogs.

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The Influence of Environmental Health on Society Health Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Policies of addressing healthy environment

Can we have a polluted environment and a healthy society at the same time?

A polluted environment means an unstable and unhealthy society. The effects of pollution are so many, as they range widely. It would be hard to have a healthy society in an area where there is pollution. Pollution causes damage to human and animals, plants, as well as the entire environment(Plattenberg, 2007).

Globally, the types of pollution that are common are air, water, and soil pollution. According to several researches done, it is evident that the impact of pollution may range from a minor discomfort to complex diseases. The people who suffer from mild discomfort because of pollution may tend to ignore the issue. The seriousness of pollution impacts is realized when complex diseases arise such as cancer or physical deformities.

Whether minor or complex effect of pollution, all leads to unhealthy living. Air polluted area would probably result to unhealthy people suffering from lung inefficiency, respiratory problems, asthma attacks, and infected physical body organs.

Water pollution would result to serious complications such as typhoid, Amoebiasis, Ascariasis etc. Soil pollution results to worse effects to human beings such as leukemia, brain damage to young children, kidney damage, and fatigue(Rana, 2006). Nevertheless, it would be hard to maintain health in a polluted environment.

Maintaining environment health is a highly crucial aspect in the society. Citizens find it hard to avoid pollution, but there are measures that can be put, to ensure minimized environmental pollution. Any form of pollution, leading to serious diseases like cancer and body organs failure should be avoided totally.

In efforts of trying to handle the issue of environment pollution, there are vital steps that would be considered first. Close observation of any chemical released to the environment without any control would be crucial. All the offensive trades that might be taking place within cities should be inspected to ensure that they are licensed, and their disposal guaranteed.

Any application of intended development that is likely to cause environment pollution should be assessed closely(Malabika, 2009). It would also be the responsibility of citizens to present complains of any form of pollution, which they may experience. Any form of pollution that may cause harm to human and animals should never be given a chance.

In conclusion, it is evident that I have proved beyond any reasonable doubt that, a polluted environment cannot sustain the people’s healthy status. Although Larry used to take water direct from the creek, and did not suffer from a serious illness that would be defined as luck.

However, although Larry did not witness serious complications, biologically he caused himself some internal bodily harm. For people to be secured in the society, pollution should be minimized starting from homes, businesses, institutions, industries, and even recreational areas(Malabika, 2009).

If some organizations control pollution and others refuse to do the same, it would be hard for the society to live in a healthy manner. No matter how minor a certain pollution may seem to be, any form of pollution should be avoided. The minor pollutions, which are avoided leads to some serious effects to human and animals(Malabika, 2009).

I thank Larry for sharing with me his interesting views concerning the water pollution. I am sure now Larry is convinced that a polluted environment leads to unhealthy society. Never again should he ignore to treat drinking water for the sake of his healthy.

Malabika, R. (2009). Environmental pollution: Impact of technology on quality of life. New York: Today & Tomorrow’s printers.

Plattenberg, R. (2007). Environmental pollution: a new research. New York: Nova Publishers.

Rana, S. (2006). Environmental pollution: health and toxicology. Michigan: Alpha science international Ltd.

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IvyPanda. (2018, June 13). The Influence of Environmental Health on Society Health. https://ivypanda.com/essays/environmental-health/

"The Influence of Environmental Health on Society Health." IvyPanda , 13 June 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/environmental-health/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'The Influence of Environmental Health on Society Health'. 13 June.

IvyPanda . 2018. "The Influence of Environmental Health on Society Health." June 13, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/environmental-health/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Influence of Environmental Health on Society Health." June 13, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/environmental-health/.

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IvyPanda . "The Influence of Environmental Health on Society Health." June 13, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/environmental-health/.

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What is environmental health?

Examining a massive influence on our health: the environment..

We've been reporting on environmental health for 20 years. But what is environmental health? You've got questions, and we have answers.

Environmental health is a branch of public health that monitors the relationship between human health and the environment, examining aspects of both our natural and human-made environment and their effect on human wellbeing.

What is an example of environmental health?

Living near factories or heavy traffic worsens air quality and leads to health impacts on the lungs and heart.

Credit: Kouji Tsuru / Unsplash

Environmental health is a broad area of study — everything from the climate to the food we eat to the air we breathe plays into environmental health. A few specific examples include:

• Air pollution: Living near factories or heavy traffic worsens air quality and leads to health impacts on the lungs and heart such as asthma and increased risk of heart attacks or stroke.
• Water contamination: Drinking lead-contaminated water can cause IQ loss, behavioral issues, learning disabilities and more. Infants and young children are most at risk.
• Toxic chemicals in consumer products: Phthalates, a class of chemicals that are widely used in consumer products, are known endocrine-disruptors, meaning they hijack your body’s hormones and can cause a wide array of health impacts including increased risk of cancer and fertility issues.

What is the role of environmental health?

The role of environmental health research is to examine areas of the environment that impact our health so that we can make personal and policy changes to keep ourselves safe and improve human health and wellbeing.

Why is environmental health important?

Credit: Viki Mohamad / Unsplash

Environmental health impacts every one of us.

We reap the benefits of clean air, clean water, and healthy soil. If our environment is unhealthy, with toxic chemicals saturating our resources and pollution abundant, then our health also suffers.

It is also an important field of study because it looks at the “unseen” influences on your health.

Many individuals may not associate their health problems with air or water quality, or with what clothes they wear, makeup and household goods they use, or food they eat.

That’s because not every example of environmental health problems are obvious: some chemicals, for example, build up slowly over time in your body: a small dose may not seem to bring harm, but repeated small doses can lead to later impacts.

• BPA absorbed through plastic containers, cans, receipts, etc. lingers in the body and the build-up over time increases risk of cancer, diabetes, liver failure, and more.
• PFAS are known as ‘forever chemicals ’— they don’t break down and are widely used, so small exposures are frequent and contribute to immune system and reproductive damages, heightened cholesterol levels, and more.
• Mercury from eating seafood and shellfish can impact neurological development of fetuses in the womb, and populations that regularly consume mercury-heavy seafood have shown mild cognitive impairment.

Also, individual susceptibility can differ: for example, one member of a household can experience illness, asthma, migraines, etc. from chemicals found in their water supply while another member of the same household is just fine, such as the case in a young girl’s reaction to benzene in her water from living near fracking wells.

Certain variables play a role in susceptibility and level of adverse health effects such as age, gender, pregnancy, and underlying health conditions. Studies suggest fetuses, infants and children are much more at risk to experience lifelong health problems from toxic chemical exposure.

Rate, duration, and frequency of exposure to toxic chemicals and other influences from our environment all factor into our health.

Good environmental health = good human health.

What environmental health problems affect our health?

Two women extracting from a well in Senegal.

Credit: JordiRamisa

There are many environmental health issues that affect human health. These include:

Air pollution — nine out of 10 people currently breathe air that exceeds the World Health Organization’s guideline limits for air pollution worldwide. This mainly affects people in low and middle-income countries, but in the United States, people that live in cities, or near refineries or factories, are often affected as well.

Air pollution also ramps up during wildfire season.

Read more: Breathless: Pittsburgh's asthma epidemic and the fight to stop it

Water pollution — as of 2014, every year more people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war. Water is the ‘universal solvent’, meaning it can dissolve more substances than any other liquid on Earth. Thus, it is too easy for toxic chemicals to enter our water supply.

Read more: Sacred Water: Environmental justice in Indian Country

Lack of access to health care — yes, this is an environmental health issue! Having an accessible health care system is part of one’s environment. Difficulty getting health care can further impact one’s health.

Poor infrastructure — from “food deserts” to lack of transportation services, living in an area with poor infrastructure can impact your health.

Read more: Agents of Change: Amplifying neglected voices in environmental justice

Climate change — climate change-induced heat waves, increased frequency and severity of large storms, droughts, flooding, etc. have resulted in health problems and even death.

Chemical pollution — chemical pollution can be sneaky: the chemicals in your everyday products, from shampoo to deodorant to your clothing to the food you eat, can directly affect your health. These chemicals are often not on the label or regulated at all.

Read more: Exposed: How willful blindness keeps BPA on shelves and contaminating our bodies

How can we improve our environmental health?

Credit: instaphotos

Educate yourself. Environmental health is a broad topic, so this can seem overwhelming. Start by taking stock of your own personal environment. Look up air pollution monitoring in your area. Get your water tested to see its chemical makeup. Evaluate the products you use in your life — personal products like shampoo and deodorant, household cleaners, air fresheners, the foods that you eat — and see what you’re bringing into your home.

Explore the Environmental Working Group's guides to check your products for toxic chemicals.

We have additional guides to help you learn more about environmental health. Find guides to plastic pollution , environmental justice , glyphosate , BPA , PFAS and more in the Resources tab at the top of our website.

As individuals we have the power to improve some of our environmental health, but there is a pressing need for systemic change and regulation on a policy level.

We’re actively working with scientists to share their research and knowledge with politicians to advocate for science-backed policy change. But we need your help. Contact your representatives to let them know that environmental health is important to you — whether it’s air pollution in your area, contaminated water, plastic pollution, food deserts in your area, or chemicals in consumer products.

Subscribe to Above the Fold , our daily newsletter keeping you up-to-date on environmental health news.

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Article contents

The environment in health and well-being.

• George Morris George Morris European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, Truro, United Kingdom
•  and  Patrick Saunders Patrick Saunders University of Staffordshire, University of Birmingham, and WHO Collaborating Centre
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.101
• Published online: 29 March 2017

Most people today readily accept that their health and disease are products of personal characteristics such as their age, gender, and genetic inheritance; the choices they make; and, of course, a complex array of factors operating at the level of society. Individuals frequently have little or no control over the cultural, economic, and social influences that shape their lives and their health and well-being. The environment that forms the physical context for their lives is one such influence and comprises the places where people live, learn work, play, and socialize, the air they breathe, and the food and water they consume. Interest in the physical environment as a component of human health goes back many thousands of years and when, around two and a half millennia ago, humans started to write down ideas about health, disease, and their determinants, many of these ideas centered on the physical environment.

The modern public health movement came into existence in the 19th century as a response to the dreadful unsanitary conditions endured by the urban poor of the Industrial Revolution. These conditions nurtured disease, dramatically shortening life. Thus, a public health movement that was ultimately to change the health and prosperity of millions of people across the world was launched on an “environmental conceptualization” of health. Yet, although the physical environment, especially in towns and cities, has changed dramatically in the 200 years since the Industrial Revolution, so too has our understanding of the relationship between the environment and human health and the importance we attach to it.

The decades immediately following World War II were distinguished by declining influence for public health as a discipline. Health and disease were increasingly “individualized”—a trend that served to further diminish interest in the environment, which was no longer seen as an important component in the health concerns of the day. Yet, as the 20th century wore on, a range of factors emerged to r-establish a belief in the environment as a key issue in the health of Western society. These included new toxic and infectious threats acting at the population level but also the renaissance of a “socioecological model” of public health that demanded a much richer and often more subtle understanding of how local surroundings might act to both improve and damage human health and well-being.

Yet, just as society has begun to shape a much more sophisticated response to reunite health with place and, with this, shape new policies to address complex contemporary challenges, such as obesity, diminished mental health, and well-being and inequities, a new challenge has emerged. In its simplest terms, human activity now seriously threatens the planetary processes and systems on which humankind depends for health and well-being and, ultimately, survival. Ecological public health—the need to build health and well-being, henceforth on ecological principles—may be seen as the society’s greatest 21st-century imperative. Success will involve nothing less than a fundamental rethink of the interplay between society, the economy, and the environment. Importantly, it will demand an environmental conceptualization of the public health as no less radical than the environmental conceptualization that launched modern public health in the 19th century, only now the challenge presents on a vastly extended temporal and spatial scale.

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• environmental epidemiology
• environmental health inequalities
• ecological public health

Introduction

This article traces the development of ideas about the environment in human health and well-being over time. Our primary focus is the period since the early 19th century , sometimes termed the “modern public health era.” This has been not only a time of unprecedented scientific, technological, and societal transition but also a time during which perspectives on the relationship of humans to their environment, and its implications for their health and well-being, have undergone significant change.

Curiosity about the environment as a factor in human health and well-being, and indeed health-motivated interventions to manage the physical context for life, substantially predate the modern public health era. The archaeological record provides evidence of sewer lines, primitive toilets, and water-supply arrangements in settlements in Asia, the Middle East, South America, and Southern Europe, dating back many thousands of years (Rosen, 1993 ). Some religious traditions also imply recognition of the importance of environmental factors in health. For example, restrictions on the consumption of certain foods probably derive from a belief that these foods carried risks to health; a passage in the book of Leviticus conveys the existence of a belief in the relationship between the internal state of a house and the health of its occupants (Leviticus [14:33–45], quoted in Frumkin, 2005 ).

The sixty-two books of the “Hippocratic Corpus” dating from 430–330 bc are the accepted bedrock of Western medicine (Lloyd, 1983 ), not least because they departed from the purely supernatural explanations for health and disease which hitherto held sway. For the first time, ideas about medicine, diseases, and their causes were being written down. Among these were ideas about the environment and its relationship to mental and physical health (Lloyd, 1983 ; Rosen, 1993 ; Kessel, 2006 ). While scarcely a template for how societies would come to think about environment and health in the modern era, one Hippocratic text in particular, On Airs, Waters and Places , introduces several ideas that do retain currency. For example, the simple message that good health is unlikely to be achieved and maintained in poor environmental conditions is enduring. Also, through specific reference to the health relevance of changes in water, soil, vegetation, sunlight, winds, climate, and seasonality, On Airs, Waters and Places conceives an environment made up of distinct compartments and spatial scales from local to global, recognizing that perturbations in these compartments, and on these scales, may result in disease. Such thinking remains conceptually and operationally relevant today. Hazardous agents are still frequently addressed in “environmental compartments” such as water, soil, air, and food or by developing and applying environmental standards for the different categories of place where people work, live, learn, and socialize. In parts, the Hippocratic Corpus also presages the ecological perspectives now coloring 21st-century public health thinking. These include an understanding of the potential for human activity to impact negatively on the natural world and the importance of viewing the body within its environment as a composite whole.

Environment and Health in the Modern Public Health Era

Epidemiology is the basic science of public health and is concerned with the distribution of health and disease in populations across time and spaces, together with the determinants of that distribution. Environmental epidemiology is a subspecialty dealing with the effects of environmental exposures on health and disease, again, in populations. Since the early 19th century , the outputs of epidemiology have been key components of a “mixed economy of evidence” that has shaped and reshaped priorities and informed the decisions society takes to protect and improve population health (Petticrew et al., 2004 ; Baker & Nieuwenhuijsen, 2008 ).

In a classic paper from the 1990s, the respected epidemiologists, Mervyn and Ezra Susser, helpfully described different “epidemiological eras” in modern public health, each driven by a dominant paradigm concerning the causes of disease and supported by a particular analytical approach (Susser & Susser, 1996 ). This differentiation offers a useful framework within which to consider changing perspectives on the role of environment in health since the early 1900s.

The Environment in an “Era of Sanitary Statistics”

The Industrial Revolution came first to 19th-century Britain driven by technological innovation, abundant coal supplies, and supportive political/economic conditions. Also influential was a post-Reformation philosophy that extolled the work ethic and self-sufficiency. The events were to resonate throughout the world, bringing great prosperity to some, but others, especially the urban poor, endured poor housing, severe overcrowding, and an absence of wholesome water or sanitation. The growing industrial cities became crucibles of squalor, disease, and severely reduced life expectancy as their citizens suffered the ravages of typhus, tuberculosis, and successive cholera epidemics. Unhealthy working conditions and grossly polluted air also damaged health and compounded the misery of urban life at this time. Such challenges were common to all locations touched by the Industrial Revolution and became the catalyst for a new public health movement across Europe and North America (Rayner & Lang, 2012 ; Rosen, 1993 ).

Using the new science of medical statistics, investigators quickly established the locations with the poorest living conditions to be also those where disease and early death were most prevalent (Chadwick, 1842 ), fueling an ultimately transformational societal response—a “sanitary revolution” (Rosen, 1993 ). Such was the impact of this mix of slum clearance with the introduction of waterborne sewerage and piped water supplies that readers of the British Medical Journal , voting almost two centuries later, still chose it, from a shortlist of 15, as the most important medical milestone since the Journal was first published in 1840 . The 11,300 readers who voted even placed it above the discovery of antibiotics and the development of anaesthesia (Ferriman, 2007 ).

Despite its impact, the “sanitary revolution” was famously initiated and sustained on a biologically flawed paradigm regarding the mechanistic causes of disease. Yet “miasma” (the transmission of disease through noxious vapors), because it served as a metaphor for squalid insanitary conditions, still drove effective intervention (Morris et al., 2006 ; Nash, 2006 ). During this time, however, the emergence of epidemiology as the primary mode of inquiry of public health was also pivotal to success. Endorsing this view, Susser and Susser labeled the first half of the 19th century an “Era of Sanitary Statistics,” citing the frequent use of district-level data to link disease to, for example: filthy and degraded urban environments; overcrowding and poor housing and working conditions; and social factors like infant care (Susser & Susser, 1996 )).

Thus, recognition that the environment (physical and social) mattered for health and notions of a “permeable” human body in close connection with other organisms and the abiotic environment were embedded at the launch of the 19th-century public health movement. It is notable that the perspective of the reformers was quite properly “proximal,” that is, rooted in an acceptance of the importance of the local environment, physical and social. While the term “ecology” would not be coined until 1866 (Haekel, 1866 ) and “social ecology” much later still (Bookchin, 1990 ), the public health pioneers embraced what, in today’s terms, we would understand as a broadly socioecological perspective and discerned no conflict in this with their efforts to understand the immediate causes of disease and intervene in a focused way to prevent it (Nash, 2006 ).

Especially through the efforts to stop cholera, the sanitarians affirmed the pathogenic potential of unsanitary conditions and pioneered the epidemiological approach, initially as “environmental epidemiology” (Baker & Nieuwenhuijsen, 2008 ). Other legacies of the Era of Sanitary Statistics have been less enduring. Despite recent advocacy of a “precautionary principle” (see, e.g., Martuzzi, 2007 ; European Environment Agency, 2013 ), the willingness to act on the basis of strong suspicion of a societal-level environmental threat to population health has diminished, perhaps an inevitable casualty of increasing sophistication and “evidence-based” approaches in medicine and policy (Kessel, 2006 ; Brownson et al., 2009 ). Many of public health’s greatest triumphs have flowed from interventions that would have struggled to satisfy today’s evidential criteria. Also, despite a recent reconnection with such arguments, the inherent logic of seeing and tackling disease in its social and environmental context, so obvious to the pioneers of public health, has periodically been less visible in the rhetoric and actions of their successors.

It is appropriate at this point to emphasize the international character of the 19th-century public health movement. This movement can all too easily be presented as a British phenomenon, with seminal contributions from John Snow ( 1813–1858 ) on the investigation of cholera (Vinten-Johansen et al., 2003 ); William Farr ( 1807–1883 ), also on cholera but more widely on medical statistics (Susser & Adelstein,, 1975 ); Edward Jenner ( 1749–1823 ) on vaccination (Baxby, 2004 ), and Edwin Chadwick ( 1800–1890 ) on the assembly of data relating disease to the filth and squalor that came with poverty (Chadwick, 1842 ). In reality, public health, then as now, advanced through the contribution of many individuals in many nations. For example, the German pioneer of cellular biology, Rudolf Virchow ( 1821–1902 ), and his fellow countryman, the hygienist Johan Peter Frank ( 1745–1821 ), were hugely important (Rather, 1985 ). In France, Louis-Rene Vilerme ( 1782–1863 ), the doctor and pioneer of social epidemiology, highlighted links between poverty and death rates (Rosen, 1993 ) and, in the United States, the meticulous work of Lemuel Shattuck ( 1793–1859 ) bears direct comparison with that of Chadwick (Rayner & Lang, 2012 ).

It might be supposed that the consolidated outputs of European laboratories, especially in the decades between 1830 and 1870 , would have quickly expunged the miasmic paradigm from 19th-century medicine and public health. Yet, the concept of miasma was so inculcated in Western thought that, for many, it retained significant explanatory power. Thus, for much of the 19th century there was not a single settled view on disease contagion (e.g., see Kokayeff, 2013 ). Indeed, as late as 1869 some distinguished Medical Officers of Health in England still attributed diseases such as typhoid to “the insidious miasma of sewer gases” and dismissed germs as “pure nonsense.”

The Environment in an “Era of Infectious Disease Epidemiology”

Increasingly contested, the miasmic theory of disease was effectively supplanted in the 1880s by broad acceptance of the germ theory, ushering a new “Era of Infectious Disease Epidemiology” (Susser & Susser, 1996 ). In 1882 , Louis Pasteur’s techniques for growing organisms made it possible for Robert Koch ( 1843–1910 ) to demonstrate that a mycobacterium was the cause of tuberculosis and, shortly thereafter, to provide scientific proof that cholera was waterborne (Foster, 1970 ; Collard, 1976 ; Brock, 1999 ). In so doing, Koch established, what had been hypothesized by his teacher, Jacob Henle ( 1809–1885 ), some 40 years earlier that disease was microbial. Henle, Snow, Koch, and the biologist Ferdinand Cohn ( 1828–1898 ) are rightly seen as fathers of the science of medical microbiology that for a time would come to dominate thinking in medicine and public health (Rayner & Lang, 2012 ).

Initially at least, the germ theory did little to diminish interest in the environment as a determinant of health. Indeed, by revealing causal linkages between organisms isolated from their environmental carriers and specific diseases, it conferred scientific coherence on the established sanitary model and vindicated efforts to secure hygienic water, food, and housing. As Lesley Nash has observed, the germ theorists were initially content to meld the insights of bacteriology with longstanding environmental beliefs. Notions of a body in constant interaction with, and closely dependent on, its local social and physical context (in today’s terms a socioecological perspective) did not conflict with the narrower perspectives of laboratory science (Nash, 2006 ).

While relative contributions may be debated, over a short timeframe medical microbiology, isolation, immunization, and improving social/environmental conditions combined to sharply reduce the burden of infectious disease for Western society. Yet, by the early years of the 20th century , the capacity to examine disease at the microscopic level, which was the engine of diagnostics and therapeutics, was beginning to act on the very foundations that support public health. Medical science gradually made its focus the pathogenic agents of disease, moving attention away from the environment and eroding socioecological perspectives. Doctors seemed quite content to express health as an absence of disease, and medical science to project its role as the maintenance and reinforcement of “self-contained” human bodies (Nash, 2006 ). Through a growing tendency to see health, disease, and their determinants as attributes of individuals rather than characteristics of communities, wider society seemed almost complicit in an ‘individualization’ of health status. One implication of this blunting of a social/environmental thrust of public health was to divorce health from place, a development that would have profound implications in the very different epidemiological context that emerged following World War II.

The Environment in an Era of Chronic Disease Epidemiology

The dramatic reduction in infectious disease was certainly one reason why the epidemiological climate in Western society changed substantially in the mid- 20th century . But just as important was the emergence of a quite disparate set of pathologies believed to be of noncommunicable etiology. Coronary heart disease, cancers, and peptic ulcers, which became the targets in a new “Era of Chronic Disease Epidemiology” (Susser & Susser, 1996 ), were thought rather unlikely to have origins in exposure to what was an increasingly regulated and ostensibly improving physical environment. While the outputs of much postwar epidemiology seemed to endorse this view, it is useful, with hindsight, to recognize the influence of what might be seen as “fashions” in epidemiological inquiry. These fashions would influence how medical science and the wider society would come to regard diseases and their causes for a generation.

The response of the public health community to the new and alarming “noncommunicable” threats was, logically, to deploy descriptive epidemiology to reveal those most likely to be affected. Perhaps surprisingly, those who traditionally were most vulnerable to disease (the young, the old, the immunocompromised, etc.) did not appear to be at increased risk. Rather, the new epidemics disproportionately affected men in their middle years (Nabel & Braunwald, 2012 ). Supported by enhanced computing power and methodological advance (Susser & Susser, 1996 ), researchers began to converge on specific risk factors that correlated with diseases of greatest concern. Many, it seemed, were aspects of individual lifestyle and behaviors, ostensibly freely chosen. A particular attraction for the proponents of what was to become known as “risk factor epidemiology” was its capacity to represent, mathematically, the “relative risk” of contracting a disease between people exposed to a putative risk and those who were not. Some have dubbed this epidemiological approach to noncommunicable or chronic disease “black box epidemiology” because it can relate exposure to outcomes “without any necessary obligation to interpolate either intervening factors or even pathogenesis” (Susser & Susser, 1996 ). Another unfortunate characteristic of this approach to epidemiology is that, despite its laudable intent to understand and address disease in populations , its focus is on individuals within those populations. As a result, it fails to elucidate the societal forces whose influence and interplay shape the health and health-relevant choices of those individuals. When viewed through a policy lens, this mitigates in favor of simplistic solutions that target individuals divorced from context and that lack the traction to produce meaningful change.

In summary, the desire to create a mathematical measure of relative risk for a specific factor is understandable. However, risk factor epidemiology uses an approach that is much more flexible than material reality. In the real world, many different factors coexist and interact to create and destroy health. This is not, however, to deny risk factor epidemiology’s capacity, particularly in synergy with laboratory-based research, to break new ground. Notably, these methodologically driven approaches were key to elucidating links between smoking and lung cancer, heart disease and serum cholesterol, and between levels of prenatal folic acid intake and neural tube defects (Susser & Susser, 1996 ; Kessel, 2006 ; Perry, 1997 ).

The same basic criticism is voiced where similar “black box” epidemiological approaches are used to explore the contribution of a specific environmental agent, as in the case of much recent air pollution epidemiology (see below) (Kessel, 2006 ). Any specific pollutant under epidemiological investigation inevitably coexists with other pollutants and in a specific exposure context (e.g., prevailing climatic conditions). These coexisting factors may be critical in determining the health outcomes from exposure to the pollutant under investigation. Because the outputs of black box epidemiology are abstractions, the relative risk calculation represents an abstraction that can be limited in its capacity to inform policy.

The decades following World War II were a time of declining influence for public health and population perspectives, largely for reasons we have outlined. Yet, in its rhetoric and activities, the discipline of public health seemed at times almost complicit. Even its defining science of epidemiology seemed for a time more concerned to reinforce the insights of clinical medicine than to play the exploratory role on which its reputation had been founded (Susser & Susser, 1996 ). On the face of it, academic public health and the wider public health discipline had little to say about environment, no longer presenting it as an active component in the then current health challenges for Western society. As Nash has observed, physical environments were “recast as homogenous spaces which were traversed by pathogenic agents.” Nevertheless, divorced from the prevailing rhetoric, in many locations there was a parallel narrative depicting a workforce that continued to work at a local level, within established legal and administrative frameworks, to protect and maintain health-relevant environmental quality standards. However, the environmental health function was often set in the narrow, hazard-focused, and compartmentalized terms framed for it by laboratory science. The task was largely confined to identifying, monitoring, and controlling a limited set of toxic or infectious threats in their environmental carriers. Only when pathogenic organisms or toxic agents demonstrably escaped their industrial, agricultural, or marine confines to damage health and reinforce the porosity of the human body did environment briefly assume a higher profile.

Against this backdrop, it was not necessarily predictable or inevitable that environment would regain a central place in public health. Yet, by the end of the 20th century , a much richer understanding of the environmental contribution to human health and well-being had indeed emerged. This change cannot be attributed to a single factor in isolation. Some point to the key influence of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 (Carson, 1962 ), which expressed grave concern for the ecosystem effects of DDT, the linkage to potential human health effects, and the implications of a growing disconnect between humankind and nature. We do not deny the status of Carson’s work as a seminal text of a modern “environmentalism” that would rapidly gather pace and influence (Nash, 2006 ). However, we submit that it is only now, in the 21st century , when the reality of unprecedented anthropogenic damage to global processes and systems and its health implications is self-evident, that the health sector has fully made common cause with the environmentalist movement (e.g., see Butler et al., 2005 ; Butler & Harley, 2010 ) (We discuss this development later in this article under Ecological Public Health.

However, for reasons that are distinct from a mounting concern over anthropogenic threats to global environmental systems and processes, we argue that the closing decades of the 20th century and the early years of this century did see a rekindling of public health and societal interest in the local or proximal environment. This interest has continued into the 21st century . Developing interest in well-being as a concept, the belief that it is important and that it might be enhanced through the organized efforts of society, continues to engage the attention of academics and policymakers. Although well-being demonstrably impacts health and vice versa, well-being is about much more than health. Rather, it is a measure of what matters to people in every sphere of their lives. Despite its importance, well-being has proved a challenging target for policy. Some of its components are beyond the reach of policy. However, others, including aspects of the built and natural environment and people’s connection to it, are amenable to manipulation. Accordingly, research has been especially concerned to identify the qualities of their environment that are important for different people’s well-being, quality of life, and health at various life stages (Royal College of Physicians, 2016 ). Also, on a practical level, integrating the various well-being frameworks and indices that continue to emerge is an ongoing challenge. However, it is sufficient at this point simply to recognize that elevated concern for well-being and its connection to environment can only broaden and deepen concern for the environment in public health. It will continue to drive renewed interest in matters such as landscape, natural beauty and scenery; crime free, clean places; green, blue, and natural environments; and so on.

Reconnecting Health with Place

Five issues/developments merit particular mention for their role in reestablishing the local environment as a mainstream consideration in health in the developed world in the late 20th century . While recognizing that there is an interrelationship among some of the factors discussed, for simplicity, we discuss them separately here.

Air Pollution

In citing air pollution as a key factor in a late- 20th-century resurgence of interest in the environment, we recognize its much longer history as a contributor to ill health (Evelyn, 1661 ; Lloyd, 1983 ). We acknowledge, too, that accounts of the modern public health era since its inception have been suffused with references to air pollution events, their health implications, and the political and professional campaigns that have sought to mitigate risk (Kessel, 2006 ). However, despite a compelling case for action, the need for urgent intervention was only fully accepted after a number of high-profile air pollution episodes in the 20th century . In 1930 , a severe smog incident in Belgium’s Meuse Valley resulted in the death of sixty people. Prophetically, investigators were quick to highlight the potential for many more deaths, were such an incident to be repeated in a more highly populated area (Bell & Samet, 2005 ). In 1948 , a further twenty people were to die and many more suffer injury after an industrial pollution incident in Donora, Pennsylvania (Hamil, 2008 ), but the tipping point came four years later, with the London Smog of 1952 .

Between December 5 and December 9, a dense fog descended on London where it mixed with air, polluted by domestic and industrial emissions. The resulting thick smog was familiar to many urban dwellers, but in this case, a combination of cold weather and stagnant atmospheric conditions caused sulfur dioxide and smoke concentrations to reach and maintain extremely high levels for a sustained period. The smog had a paralyzing effect on the city’s transport system, and many other aspects of daily life were severely disrupted. But the most dramatic effects were on health. Death rates were to reach three times the normal level for the time of year, and demand for hospital beds far exceeded supply (Baker & Nieuwenhuijsen, 2008 ). While the smog dissipated after a few days, deaths rates remained high for several months thereafter. Subsequent analysis has revealed that, rather than the 3,000–4,000 deaths linked to the episode in at the time, a figure of 10,000–12,000 deaths is more probable (Bell et al., 2004 ).

The London smog is historically important, obviously because of the distressing toll in morbidity and mortality and because it catalyzed long-overdue legislative intervention in the UK in the form of the Clean Air Act of 1956 and the U.S. Clean Air Act 1963 . Critically, however, it reminded the public and politicians of the reality that, given the right conditions, population-level environmental exposures were still entirely capable of producing significant morbidity and mortality.

In combination with other factors, the clean air legislation that emerged in the wake of the smog reduced domestic and industrial fossil fuel emissions, and helped to secure significant reductions in background concentrations of smoke and sulfur dioxide (Royal College of Physicians, 2016 ). However, by the late 1980s, a new, more insidious, urban air pollution threat had begun to emerge. This pollution had its origins not in fixed-point emissions, but in the rapidly increasing numbers of motor vehicles and other fossil fuel-driven forms of transport in towns and cities. The pollutants of concern here, which lacked the visibility of the earlier sulfurous smogs, were fine particles, oxides of nitrogen, and ozone. So-called time-series analyses, using data on the temporal variation in environmental exposure and in health, aggregated over the same time period, were now applied to explore the issue of urban air pollution and health (e.g., see Pope et al., 1995 ; Dockery & Pope, 1996 ; Kessel, 2006 ). The studies revealed the cardiopulmonary effects of long-term exposure to much lower levels of ambient air pollution and, later, following further investigation, the absence of a threshold level for causing health effects. Recent outputs of ‘life-course’ epidemiology have also shown that air pollution affects health, not only through the exacerbation of symptoms in the elderly, but through various processes that have impacts from the womb, through childhood to adolescence, early adulthood, and on into middle and older age (Royal College of Physicians, 2016 ). Also, appreciation that air pollutants can be resident in the air for days or even weeks makes air pollution not simply a local problem, but one that demands source control at city, regional, and international levels. In the UK, for example, the equivalent of around 40,000 deaths every year can be attributed to fine particulates and NO 2 exposure from outdoor air (Royal College of Physicians, 2016 ).

Air pollution is probably the most thoroughly investigated of all environmental threats to health and well-being. Revelations about the true extent of its impact on health keep the issue in the headlines and emphasize the centrality of the physical environment within the public health project. Despite being a focus for academic interest and research fundings, the problem of urban air pollution is a very long way from resolution and is one factor that demands a fundamental reappraisal of how, as a species, we live, consume, and travel. (We discuss a wider, global dimension of the air pollution challenge later in this article.)

Everything Matters: The Environment as an Ingredient in Social Complexity

Another important and often overlooked reason for the late- 20th-century rekindling of interest in the environment and human health can be traced to developments within the wider discipline of public health. Ironically, the thinking behind what, by the 1990s, was being termed the “new public health” had its origins in much older ideas that gave prominence to the social structures in which health is created and destroyed (Baum, 1998 ; Awefeso, 2004 ). If we accept that health, disease, and social patterning in these matters are products of a complex interaction of influences at the level of society with the characteristics of individuals, then such complexity ought to be reflected in the policies and partnerships formed to address them. A growing number of analyses, beginning in the 1970s, would turn a spotlight on this complexity and fundamentally challenge the dominance of the biomedical/health care model and its capacity to solve the problems that beset public. These problems included the intractable burden of noncommunicable disease; growing levels of obesity; diminished psychological well-being; and, not least, stubborn and widening inequalities in the health and well-being of different social groups. Concern also mounted over containing rising, and potentially bankrupting, health care costs.

“A New Perspective on the Health of Canadians,” more commonly referred to as the Lalonde Report, after Canada’s then health minister Marc Lalonde, was published in 1974 (Lalonde, 1974 ). Despite its national focus, the report assumed wider relevance because of its analysis of one of public health’s greatest generic challenges, that of navigating among the many complex and interacting determinants of health to identify effective policies and actions. Implicitly offering a socioecological perspective, the Lalonde Report spoke of a “Health Field,” which included all matters that affect health and comprised four core elements: human biology, environment, lifestyle, and health care organization. Any issue, it was proposed, could be traced to one, or a combination, of these elements, allowing the creation of a “map of the health territory” for any problem (Lalonde, 1974 ). In this way, the contribution and interaction of the elements could be assessed. The analysis affirmed the health relevance of a complex environment comprising interacting physical and social dimensions in interaction with the human body. Lalonde’s message was logical and important, yet more than just an echo of an earlier, more inclusive, understanding of the determinants of health and disease. It recast these largely abandoned perspectives for a more scientific and sophisticated era. The proposal that thousands of “pieces” relevant to health and its determinants could be organized in “an orderly pattern” was alluring and progressive, as was the notion that the exercise alone would allow all contributors to more fully appreciate their roles and influence (Morris et al., 2006 ). In the ensuing years, Lalonde’s proposals for understanding and addressing complexity in the determinants of health have been refined and given greater policy relevance by others. In part, this has been through the development of conceptual models of the socioecological determinants of health. These models have been promoted as tools for presenting evidence that can make their implications more apparent (Evans & Stoddart, 1990 ; Dahlgren & Whitehead, 1991 ). In most of these representations, the local environment is accepted as a key driver of health and well-being (Morris et al., 2006 ).

Despite its inherent logic, the socioecological perspectives that emerged in the closing decades of the 20th century created scientific and policy challenges for all constituencies concerned with public health. There were obvious generic challenges, for example, around which of the models (each, necessarily, a gross simplification of a complex reality) might point to solutions (Morris et al., 2006 ; Evans & Stoddart, 1990 ; Reis et al., 2015 ); around the nature of evidence and its interpretation (Petticrew et al., 2004 ; Tannahill, 2008 ); and how, in practice, to traverse professional and policy silos to produce the interdisciplinary approaches that are inevitably required. In this connection, the task of motivating, supporting, and delivering effective intersectoral working, an abiding challenge for public health policy and practice, assumed a much higher profile in the late 20th century with the emergence of the socioecological model of health.

We emphasize that the continuing failure to adequately confront this challenge has the gravest implications for global public health. As Prüss-Üstün et al. recently observed, “Tackling environmental risks requires intersectoral collaboration. After nearly 50 years of actively promoting this concept, whether referred to as intersectoral action, breaking down silos or the nexus approach, it remains elusive as ever. The statement ‘intersectoral collaboration: loved by all, funded by no-one’ points to obstacles, mainly vested interests, that have burdened this approach ever since it was included as part of the WHO/UNICEF Alma Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care in 1978 . Environmental health, quintessentially intersectoral, has suffered most from this lack of progress” (Prüss-Üstün et al., 2016a ).

With specific reference to the role of the local environment, the recognition of socioecological complexity as the determinant of health meant that strict adherence to narrow hazard-focused and compartmentalized approaches became intellectually unsustainable. Yet, acceptance of the dynamic interaction of environment with other determinants of health demands a richer understanding of the environmental contribution than can be provided by toxicology or microbiology in isolation.

The Role of the Environment in Health Inequalities

The fact that the poorest, most degraded urban neighborhoods were those most blighted by disease and reduced life expectancy was clear even to the public health pioneers of the 19th century . Indeed, throughout much of the modern public health era, an acceptance of the importance of the environment for health and well-being has been accompanied by a recognition of the interplay between sociodemographic, economic, and physical factors in creating and sustaining health inequalities.

The term “health inequalities” refers to general differences in health, however caused. Where the differences in health are unfair, unjust, and avoidable, as they often are when linked to social variables, they should more properly be termed “health inequities.” However, in the extensive literature on the topic and in common usage, inequities are termed inequalities, and we adopt this convention here. Despite their importance, the emphasis on tackling health inequalities has varied considerably over time and according to place.

In 2008 , the final report of the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH, 2008 ) elevated the global profile of health inequalities and emphasized the interplay of many societal-level factors in their creation in the 21st century . The significant achievements in public health across the world over nearly two centuries have not been shared equally between countries or by all social groups within countries. An important component has been the health-relevant differences in the physical context for people’s lives—the quality of the physical environment. Sometimes expressed in terms of environmental justice , or elsewhere as environmental health inequalities, attention to this area is key to tackling health inequalities across the world (CSDH, 2008 ; Morris & Braubach, 2012 ).

Estimates of the impact of environmental quality on health and well-being vary widely, depending on the definition of environment used. However, that impact is undeniable. Over a billion people in developing countries, for example, have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation . The World Health Organization estimates that environmental factors were responsible for 12.6 million deaths worldwide in 2012 , 23 percent of all deaths, and 22 percent of the total burden of disease. Addressing environmental risks could prevent 26 percent of all deaths of children under the age of 5 (Prüss-Üstün et al., 2016b ).

In addition, there is clear evidence that a “good” environment empowers health through access to environmental assets such as green spaces, access to a healthy diet, and safe environments in which to walk, cycle, play, and socialize. However, as these data suggest, there is also a fundamental equity dimension to the distribution of both the cause and distribution of environmental stressors, the susceptibility to exposure, and the adverse effects of those exposures. Deprived communities almost invariably live in poorer quality environments, with higher levels of indoor and outdoor air pollution, contaminated land, polluting industrial processes, overcrowded and poor quality housing, and lower levels of environmental assets (Prüss-Üstün et al., 2016a ; 2016b ; Royal College of Physicians, 2016 ; The Marmot Review Team, 2010 ). Populations in developed countries, including the former communist states of eastern Europe living in areas of high air pollution, are disproportionately deprived, for example (Kriger et al, 2014 ; Bell & Ebisu, 2012 ; Branis & Linhartova, 2012 ; Goodman et al., 2011 ). Poor indoor air quality is associated with unfit or inadequate housing standards, conditions that overwhelmingly affect the deprived (The Marmot Review Team, 2010 ). There is evidence that deprived communities are not only more exposed to environmental hazards but are also more susceptible to the effects of those exposures (Goodman et al., 2011 ; Carder et al., 2008 ; Richardson et al., 2011 ; 2013 ; Vinikoor-Imler et al., 2012 ). There are also concerns that stress, at both the individual and community level, can weaken the body’s defenses against external insult and influence the internal dose of toxicants (Gee & Payne-Sturges, 2004 ).

This effect is also seen in social and physical environments. An adequate and nutritious diet is essential to a healthy, productive, and fulfilling life, and it is a fundamental right predicated by a range of factors including personal knowledge, choice, convenience, availability, quality, cost, and social norms. The evidence is clear that deprivation compounds all these factors, with poorer people buying more unhealthy foods with fewer healthy components while being exposed to circumstances that make such “choices” inevitable (Rudge et al., 2013 ). The proportion of adults considered overweight or obese in 2008 in the 19 EU member states for which data were available ranged between 37 and 57 percent for women and between 51 and 69 percent for men ( EUROSTAT ). English children from deprived areas are almost twice as likely to be obese than those in affluent areas, and adult obesity is also associated with deprivation, particularly in women (Public Health England, 2016 ; National Obesity Observatory, 2013 ).

The poor in developed countries are adept at sourcing cheap calories and are exposed to a large numbers of local outlets selling cheap, calorie-dense takeaway food (Saunders et al., 2015 ). These meals are often super-sized and contain high levels of fats, sugar, and salt. At the same time, many of these areas provide limited access to healthy food options, creating a highly compromised public health environment (Saunders et al., 2015 ).

In addition, environmental stressors seem to have a cumulative impact, exacerbating this inequality. It is evident that poorer people have multiple health, social, and environmental stressors. It is entirely plausible that these stressors modify the effect of exposure to pollutants, as is reflected in the increased vulnerability of obese people to the effects of exposure to air pollutants, including increased risk of diseases such as cardiovascular events and respiratory symptoms (WHO, 2013 ; Jung et al., 2014 ). Long-term exposure to airborne pollutants has also been reported to increase the risk of obesity, and being overweight or obese is associated with an increased susceptibility to indoor air pollution in urban children with asthma (Lu et al., 2013 ).

The responsibility for, and relative benefits and costs of, environmental contamination are also important components of inequality. Environmental contamination may be tolerated by communities living in the vicinity of dirty industrial processes if they perceive a benefit in terms of local employment, although that trade-off has largely broken down in developed countries as those industries have declined in the 20th and 21st centuries. On a wider scale, the environmental consequences of contemporary affluent nations’ fuel economies are borne by those populations least able to bear them and with little or no responsibility for their causation (Patz et al., 2005 ). UNICEF has projected that 75–250 million Africans will be exposed to increased water stress due to climate change by 2020 (UNICEF, 2008 ), a phenomenon overwhelmingly caused by the First World. This is a gross injustice. These are also the same people with limited powers to prevent the dumping of rich countries’ waste in their communities. One appalling example is that of the “disposal” of 500 tons of toxic waste in and around Abidjan, the capital of Cote D’Ivoire, in 2006 . This poisonous cocktail of waste oil and contaminants was the result of the trading in, and processing of, hydrocarbon fuels by multinational commodity and shipping companies, criminal levels of cost cutting, and local political corruption, which led to 17 deaths and over 30,000 injuries in one of the poorest communities in the world (Bohand et al., 2007 ) There are many other examples, including the export, often illegally, of hundreds of thousands of tons of e-waste from Western countries to Africa, China, and Asia for recycling or disposal—transferring the costs and dangerous consequences of exposure to workers, including children, and local communities in these countries that do not have the technical or regulatory systems to deal safely with these toxic materials (ILO, 2012 ). Inuit mothers in northern Canada have elevated levels of chemicals such as PCBs—generated many hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away—in their breast milk (Johansen, 2002 ).

The redistribution of the environmental injustices historically endured by the poor also perversely appears to be affecting more affluent communities in the West. The huge expansion of “fracking” in North America, for example, may be leading to an export of risks from traditional “national sacrifice zones” to areas with no previous experience of such industry, creating “profound social, cultural, and economic shocks for middle class communities losing control over their environments” (Lave & Lutz, 2014 ). Despite their relative affluence, this would nonetheless be an injustice given the constraints on local democratic input and highly questionable direct economic benefits to those communities (Kinnaman, 2011 ; Lave & Lutz, 2014 ; Sovacool, 2014 ).

During a period when environmental catalysts for distress migrations are becoming more frequent (Thomas-Hope, 2011 ), there is a moral as well as a professional duty for the Environmental Health community to tackle these inequalities, which otherwise are likely to both widen and deepen.

The Health-Promoting Environment: Green, Blue, and Natural Spaces

While human communities have long valued access to natural resources such as green spaces, the industrialization of the 19th and early 20th centuries saw millions of people deprived of this access. This era did witness some far-sighted philanthropic gifting of areas of open recreational space for the working classes driven by a moral rather than evidence-based imperative. Though welcome, the distribution of, and access to, such resources was limited, inconsistent, unplanned, and vulnerable to the insecurities of voluntary funding. Subsequent local municipal development of parks and other open spaces increased access, and a greater understanding of the benefits of such access blossomed during the late 20th century as research demonstrated and quantified the public health dividends. Access to good-quality green spaces not only makes the places in which we live, work, and play more attractive, but also has a demonstrable effect on improving health and well-being. Green space is linked to lower levels of several diseases and conditions, including lower rates of mortality (Villeneuve et al., 2012 ), increased longevity in older people (Faculty of Public Health, 2011 ), improved mental health (Faculty of Public Health, 2011 ), better outcomes in disease treatment, and reduced medication (Faculty of Public Health, 2011 ), and it also helps reduce health inequalities (Mitchell & Popham, 2008 ; CABE, 2010 ). Plausible mechanisms for these benefits include the provision of a venue for physical activity, promotion of social contact, and the direct impacts of green spaces on psychological and physical health. Natural spaces also promote greater community cohesion and reduce social isolation, providing a platform for community activities, social interaction, physical activity, and recreation (Public Health England, 2014 ). Research from the United States has identified powerful associations between green space and major reductions in aggressive behavior, domestic abuse, and other crime in deprived urban areas (Kuo et al., 2001a , 2001b ).

And yet, there remain great inequalities in the distribution, use, and quality of this empowering resource. People living in the most deprived areas are less likely to live in the greenest areas and therefore have less opportunity to gain the health benefits of green space compared with people living in the least deprived areas (Public Health England, 2014 ). Children living in poor areas, for example, are nine times less likely than those living in affluent areas to have access to green space and places to play (National Children’s Bureau, 2013 ). It is entirely plausible that that this contributes to the sobering reality that children from deprived communities are up to three times as likely to be obese than those children growing up in affluent areas (National Children’s Bureau, 2013 ).

Accessibility, however, is not the same as availability or utility, nor is it simply a function of proximity. It is strongly impacted by the cost of access, whether it is actually physically available, opening times, and the ease of being able to get to it, for example, walking and good public transport. Deprived communities in particular appreciate the value of such spaces, but they tend to underuse them due to concerns about the safety and quality of the spaces (CABE, 2010 ). Experience has shown that quality of the green space is just as important, if not more so, than its size. Post-World War II urban developments in many countries have included large grassy areas, and substantially derelict former industrial sites have often been entirely grassed over. The sterility and sheer size of these sites, the cost of maintenance, and the lack of facilities have often led to misuse and subsequent abandonment by both communities and local municipalities.

The provision, maintenance, and promotion of good-quality and safe , publicly available spaces is not a subsidy; it is an investment delivering economic, health, and regeneration benefits . Research on Philadelphia estimated that maintaining city parks could achieve huge annual savings in health care costs, stormwater management, air pollution mitigation, and social cohesion benefits (The Trust for Public Land, 2008 ). The improved social cohesion associated with natural spaces also has economic benefits. A 2009 Scottish study estimated a £7.36 dividend for every £1 invested in conservation volunteering projects (Greenspace Scotland, 2009 ). It is clear from the evidence that increasing the use of good-quality green space for all social groups is likely to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities.

The Reemergence of the Infectious Threat

Among the developments that, for Western societies, consigned environment to the periphery of medical and public health interest in the post–World War II era, we highlighted the epidemiological transition in the mid- 20th century . Indeed, for a period in the 1960s and 1970s it seemed that infectious disease in the developed world had effectively been conquered (Fauci, 2001 ). It was even tempting to suggest that the developing world might eventually follow suit. Yet, within a relatively few years, the twin threats of emerging infectious disease and antibiotic resistance would shatter the earlier confidence and reestablish infection as a live threat to individuals, communities, and populations and one that presented, increasingly, on a global scale.

The term “emerging infectious disease” (EID) denotes an infectious disease, newly recognized as occurring in humans; one that has been previously recognized but is appearing for the first time in a new population or a different geographic area; one that now affects many more people; and/or one that is displaying new attributes, for example, in terms of its resistance or virulence ( adapted from The US Government & Global Emerging Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response ). Although the return of infection was not necessarily anticipated by a confident global community, many predisposing factors were clearly present. Changes in land use, growth and movement of populations, contacts between people and animals, international trade and travel, and, often, an absence of a public health infrastructure all played a part. Where such influences coincided, as in sub-Saharan Africa or parts of Asia, hotspots were created that were conducive to the emergence of infectious disease. Several hundred new infectious diseases appeared across the globe in the period between 1940 and 2004 , with the greatest number emerging in the 1980s (Jones et al., 2008 ). The 1980s was also the decade that notoriously witnessed the late 20th century ’s most sentinel infection event, the first reported cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS). By 2014 , AIDS alone would result in approximately 78 million cases worldwide . Although HIV/AIDS engendered particular alarm, the list of late- 20th-century EIDs of medical and public health significance is extensive. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD), H5N1 Influenza and Ebola Virus Disease, the Northern Hemisphere debut of the mosquito-borne zoonotic viral disease, and West Nile Fever in New York City in 1999 were all public health and media events. The process continues unabated in the 21st century with the arrival of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), H1N1 Influenza (“swine flu”), H7N9 Influenza (“bird flu”), and, despite having surfaced some 40 years earlier, Ebola revealed its potential as a global threat with the West African Outbreak of 2014–2015 . More recently still, the distressing incidence of microcephaly in South America putatively linked to the Zika virus simply emphasizes the abiding challenge posed by infection for public health and global economics (European Centre for Disease Control, 2016 ).

Antibiotic resistance has been a developing public health horror story over, perhaps, 50 years. The therapeutic use of antimicrobials and especially antibiotics was a key factor in slashing the burden of illness from infection in Western countries in the latter half of the 20th century . Yet all classes of organisms—fungi, protozoa, viruses, and bacteria—can develop antimicrobial resistance. Through their genetic processes, bacteria have derived multiple resistance mechanisms to antibiotics used in medicine and agriculture. The threat renders humankind vulnerable to a host of infections, notably in hospital settings where treatment options for many infections are now severely limited. As a consequence, even at the dawn of the 21st century , drug resistance was already being perceived as an increasing threat to global public health, involving all major microbial pathogens and antimicrobial drugs (Levy & Marshall, 2004 )

The challenges of EIDs and antimicrobial resistance are, unquestionably, game changers for medicine and public health in the 21st century . Importantly, they are among the factors that have revealed the true limitations of the biomedical model of health and disease in the 20th century and rekindled interest in the socioeconomic and environmental determinants of disease. HIV/AIDS merits special mention in this regard. Although it is believed to have origins in nonhuman primates in West Africa, it is not an environmental disease in the sense that there is a specific environmental reservoir. Medical sciences and epidemiology have shown transmission of the virus via unprotected sex, contaminated blood transfusions, hypodermic needles, and mother to child transmission during pregnancy, delivery, and breastfeeding. HIV (the infection) and AIDS (the disease) have shown the capacity to extend beyond the initially identified high-risk groups, potentially placing whole populations at risk. In some areas of sub-Saharan Africa where the infection is widespread, it impacts negatively on almost every aspect of society and the economy.

Over 30 years after it first emerged and despite concerted efforts, there is still no cure. In addition to banishing complacency, the infection and the disease call for a much wider perspective than that which took root in the postwar era of scientific positivism and medical paternalism. The failure to manage the threat stems in part from an incapacity to understand where to intervene to change behaviors and to see the disease in its social and environmental context.

Ecological Public Health

Earlier in this article, we identified five issues that helped reestablish awareness of the environment as a key component in the production of human health and well-being in the late 20th century . These issues, and our understanding of them, continue to evolve to challenge the public health community and wider society in the 21st century . In the most general terms, progress seems most likely where issues and challenges are framed with reference to a much wider range of pertinent factors by developing new approaches to evidence and its synthesis; by aligning institutional, physical, and educational infrastructures to the task; and by building governance structures in which all players are accountable and yet are encouraged to unite in common cause.

However, society must now embrace an additional and potentially more devastating threat to health and well-being. Human activity, including economic activity, is now directly and indirectly driving changes to the ecosystems and planetary processes on which we rely for health, well-being, and existence. For too long, human beings have lived, moved, consumed, and pursued health and well-being as if humankind is distinct and separate from nature rather than integral to it. The consequences of this disconnect for the natural world were graphically expressed by Rachel Carson in the 1960s and many others in the ensuing years (e.g., see Rockström et al., 2009 ; Steffen et al., 2015 ). However, developments in science and technology now reveal the true extent of the crisis, its accelerating nature, and its consequences both now and in the medium and longer term.

The term “ecological public health” is increasingly being used to encapsulate a need to build health and well-being, henceforth, on ecological principles. Rayner and Lang ( 2012 ) observe that, despite appearing difficult and complex, Ecological public health “is now the 21st century ’s unavoidable task.” Thus, the already complex challenge of navigating human social complexity to deliver health, well-being, and greater equity, which has defined public health in Western society for several decades, is made more challenging still. The relationship of the environment and human health and well-being must be understood and addressed on vastly extended temporal and spatial scales.

The notion that the planet is a finite resource on which human activity can place intolerable pressure and that the consequences of doing so are potentially catastrophic has been around for some time (e.g., see Carson, 1962 ; Meadows et al., 1972 ). A contemporary evolution of this thinking is expressed by Rockstrom and colleagues. Their sentinel paper, first published in 2009 (Rockström et al., 2009 ) and updated in 2015 (Steffen et al., 2015 ), lists the large earth system processes that are urgently in need of stewardship if humanity is to remain safe into the future. Where applicable, it proposes thresholds beyond which nonlinear, abrupt, and potentially catastrophic changes in these systems might be expected. This thinking is used as a basis for defining a “safe operating space for humanity.” The authors propose nine “planetary boundaries.” Three of these—climate change, ocean acidification, and stratospheric ozone depletion—are major planetary systems where evidence exists of large-scale thresholds in the history of the planet history of the planet. Also included are systems of a rather different sort. These are the slow variables that buffer and regulate planetary resilience. These slow variables comprise interference with the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles; land-use change; rate of biodiversity loss; and freshwater use. Two parameters, air pollution and chemical pollution, are especially difficult to quantify, meaning that thresholds cannot yet be defined. It is emphasized that, while for understandable reasons, the nine systems are often discussed independently, they are interrelated in ways meaning that changes in one system have profound implications for the others. Rockstrom and colleagues observe that in the preindustrial era, all nine parameters were within the safe operating boundaries, and yet by the 1950s, change was underway, most evidently in the nitrogen cycle. By 2009 , according to their analysis, three planetary boundaries had been transgressed: climate change; rate of biodiversity loss; and the nitrogen cycle.

An implicit challenge in limiting global ecosystem damage and its multiple implications is how to achieve recognition among the public and policymakers that the choices they make either directly or indirectly cause ecosystem damage and related environmental change (Morris et al., 2015 ). Climate change is simply the most striking example, but comparable challenges over communication exist in relation to other planetary process and systems. The fundamental rethink of society, the economy, and the environment, which is necessary if health and well-being are to be built on ecological principles, will happen only if the true implications for health and well-being of a “business as usual” approach are understood, communicated, and challenged. For any population, the environmental changes that may ultimately have profound implications may take place in countries and regions well beyond their borders or may not occur for some time, conferring a temporal and/or spatial remoteness that diminishes the sense of urgency. Appreciating the importance of these “distal” pathways of ecosystem damage to human health and well-being demands a greater understanding of ecosystem services (the benefits human beings get from the natural environment) and of why they matter. It also demands a much fuller appreciation of the global connectivity of social, economic, and ecological systems (Morris et al., 2015 ; Adger et al., 2009 ).

When initiating our discussion of the role of environment in health, we observed that the modern public health era was built on an environmental conceptualization of public health. It is now inconceivable that health, well-being, health care, and equity in any of these domains can be delivered without rediscovering an environmental conceptualization of public health for the 21st century .

For Western society, ecological public health is likely to require a rethink of society, the economy, and our stewardship of the natural environment (Rayner & Lang, 2012 ). At the very least, it will demand pursuit, through policy and action, of outcomes that recognize a ‘quadruple bottom line’ measured in health and well-being, environmental quality, equity, and sustainability. The extent to which we embrace ecological principles will be evidenced in policies that address how we live (for example, the energy efficiency of our homes), how we move (particularly our reluctance to substitute travel in fossil-fueled cars with more active forms of travel); how we consume (notably how we source and produce food) and, of course how we obtain and conserve energy.

Taking Stock

Despite being necessarily selective, this article has sought to illustrate how perspectives on the role of the environment in human health and well-being have evolved over the course of the modern public health era. Perspectives can be seen to shift owing to changes in the nature of environmental hazards and risks that are themselves products of the evolution of how societies live, move around, consume, source their energy, and so on. Our understanding of the health relevance of the built and natural environments is also shaped by advances in scientific understanding and technology and a much wider economic, social, cultural, and even political context. In structuring our account, we have adopted a loose framework based on the “epidemiological eras,” elegantly articulated by two of the 20th century ’s leading epidemiologists (Susser & Susser, 1996 ). These eras are differentiated according to the dominant paradigm of the time concerning the causes of disease, each underpinned by analytical approaches to understand and prioritize risk.

The importance accorded to the environment as a mainstream public health issue arguably reached its lowest point in the decades following World War II when the tendency to regard health and disease as characteristics of individuals, rather than communities or populations, gained prominence. This approach diverted attention from social and environmental factors, divorcing health from place. Notions that humans are self-contained and impervious to context have now been largely swept away, not least because denial of a socioecological perspective hugely undermined attempts to address the most serious contemporary health challenges. Also instrumental in challenging the notion of the self-contained body has been an environmentalist movement with a particular interest in pesticide and other chemical contamination of the biosphere. The toxic effects of chemical contamination reinforce the reality of a body that is permeable and invariably in a state of intimate exchange with its surroundings. As Nash ( 2006 ) has observed, “ the singular and self-contained body of the early 20th century came, by the end of that century to seem distressingly porous and vulnerable to the modern landscape” (p. 13). We would simply add that humans exhibit comparable porosity and vulnerability to the social and economic context in which they exist.

We recognize that our account contains only limited reference to the regulatory context that has been so central to controlling the environment for public health. We consider it appropriate to sound a warning in this regard. The processes through which environment is monitored and regulated to protect human health and well-being are sometimes taken for granted. Yet, since the 1980s, pressures have mounted in most Western nations to ‘deregulate’ markets to maximize profit. These pressures have led to environmental and public health regulation being increasingly perceived by governments and markets as “red tape” and a barrier to economic enterprise. Pressure to loosen or even abandon aspects of environmental regulation has weakened formal controls, leaving society vulnerable to corporate excess and irresponsibility, with often serious impacts on public health (Oldenkamp et al., 2016 ). This is not to argue that regulation should be static. Rather, it should adapt to changing technological, social, and economic circumstances and should be appropriately funded whether it relates to the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink, the buildings we live, learn, and work in, or the nutritional aspects of the food we eat. Neither do we deny the potential to exploit citizen science and the power of new technology to supplement conventional regulation (e.g., enabling vulnerable individuals to avoid hazardous exposures and the opportunities for personal pollution monitoring to improve research).

Mainly anthropogenic damage to planetary resources and ecosystems demands that, wherever we are in the world, public health agencies must understand not just the proximal threats to health and well-being that have been the targets of public health intervention throughout the modern public health era. They must also understand and move to prevent, counteract, and contain more distal threats to health and well-being. The distal threats derive from changes to environments that appear remote in space or time or involve a complex interaction of social, environmental, and economic influences. These are no longer abstract considerations. The unprecedented global connectivity of economic and social systems and the growing understanding of ecosystem interdependencies demand that the implications of human activity for health and well-being be recognized, understood, and addressed on a vastly extended temporal and spatial scale.

Only by build health and well-being on ecological principles (Ecological Public Health) will society effectively address the more distal threats to health and well-being from global ecosystem damage; the socioecological complexity of the proximal environment and the interconnections between these.

Conclusions

In this necessarily brief and artificially linear account, our intention has been to reinforce the enduring importance of the environment for health and well-being. Along the way, we have identified three factors that have marginalized the environment as a component of health and disease. We suggest that they continue to represent clear and present threats, undermining public health and, in the case of the latter, an existential threat to humankind.

The Threat from Medical Reductionism

This tendency to think of disease almost exclusively in terms of pathogenic agents and organic dysfunction marginalizes any influence outside the crucible of the laboratory. This trend was most evident in the decades following World War II but remains an ever-present threat.

The Separation of Health from Place

Closely related to medical reductionism is the tendency to downplay the importance of local context for life. The idea that if local environment matters, it does not matter much and, that when it comes to health and disease, the real action is not out there in the neighborhood and among the community but “over here” in the laboratory and at the level of the individual. Such perspectives are divisive. They create artificial barriers between many academic disciplines, including some medical specialties, and those working to manage and improve the local social and environmental context within which “permeable” human beings live out their lives.

The Denial of Ecology

Science now permits humans to understand the true extent to which their activities are plundering natural resources and harming the planetary systems and processes on which they depend. The pace of change is such that health, well-being, heath care, or anything approaching equity in these things will not be sustained in the medium to longer term without radically rethinking society, the environment, and the economy. The global connectivity of social, economic, and environmental systems means, ultimately, that no one is insulated from the threat whether by distance or socioeconomic circumstance. Ecological public health, the pursuit of health and well-being on ecological principles, has been described as the 21st century ’s unavoidable task. It demands recognition of the dynamic interconnections between people and their environment. Manifestly, we depend on the environment we inhabit, and we powerfully affect it. Among the clearest impediments to delivering ecological public health and preserving a viable environment for future generations are the belief that we can manipulate and conquer the natural environment without consequence, and the irresponsible capitalist imperative that subverts regulatory standards and damages and exploits the environment for profit. Both are revealed as transparent absurdities by an ecological understanding and analysis.

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• Environment Essay

Essay on Understanding and Nurturing Our Environment

The environment is everything that surrounds us – the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil beneath our feet, and the diverse flora and fauna that inhabit our planet. It's not just a backdrop to our lives; it's the very essence of our existence. In this essay, we'll explore the importance of our environment, the challenges it faces, and what we can do to ensure a sustainable and thriving world for generations to come.

Our environment is a complex and interconnected web of life. Every living organism, from the tiniest microbe to the largest mammal, plays a crucial role in maintaining the balance of ecosystems. This delicate balance ensures the survival of species, including humans. For instance, bees pollinate plants, which produce the oxygen we breathe. Nature is a masterpiece that has evolved over millions of years, and we are just one small part of this intricate tapestry.

Importance of Environment  

The environment is crucial for keeping living things healthy.

It helps balance ecosystems.

The environment provides everything necessary for humans, like food, shelter, and air.

It's also a source of natural beauty that is essential for our physical and mental health.

The Threats to Our Environment:

Unfortunately, our actions have disrupted this delicate balance. The rapid industrialization, deforestation, pollution, and over-exploitation of natural resources have led to severe environmental degradation. Climate change, driven by the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, is altering weather patterns, causing extreme events like floods, droughts, and storms. The loss of biodiversity is another alarming concern – species are disappearing at an unprecedented rate due to habitat destruction and pollution.

Impact of Human Activities on the Environment

Human activities like pollution, deforestation, and waste disposal are causing environmental problems like acid rain, climate change, and global warming. The environment has living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components. Biotic components include plants, animals, and microorganisms, while abiotic components include things like temperature, light, and soil.

In the living environment, there are producers (like plants), consumers (like animals), and decomposers (like bacteria). Producers use sunlight to make energy, forming the base of the food web. Consumers get their energy by eating other organisms, creating a chain of energy transfer. Decomposers break down waste and dead organisms, recycling nutrients in the soil.

The non-living environment includes climatic factors (like rain and temperature) and edaphic factors (like soil and minerals). Climatic factors affect the water cycle, while edaphic factors provide nutrients and a place for organisms to grow.

The environment includes everything from the air we breathe to the ecosystems we live in. It's crucial to keep it clean for a healthy life. All components of the environment are affected by its condition, so a clean environment is essential for a healthy ecosystem.

Sustainable Practices:

Adopting sustainable practices is a key step towards mitigating environmental degradation. This includes reducing our carbon footprint by using renewable energy, practicing responsible consumption, and minimizing waste. Conservation of natural resources, such as water and forests, is essential. Supporting local and global initiatives that aim to protect the environment, like reforestation projects and wildlife conservation efforts, can make a significant impact.

Education and Awareness:

Creating a sustainable future requires a collective effort, and education is a powerful tool in this regard. Raising awareness about environmental issues, the consequences of our actions, and the importance of conservation is crucial. Education empowers individuals to make informed choices and encourages sustainable practices at both personal and community levels.

Why is a Clean Environment Necessary?

To have a happy and thriving community and country, we really need a clean and safe environment. It's like the basic necessity for life on Earth. Let me break down why having a clean environment is so crucial.

First off, any living thing—whether it's plants, animals, or people—can't survive in a dirty environment. We all need a good and healthy place to live. When things get polluted, it messes up the balance of nature and can even cause diseases. If we keep using up our natural resources too quickly, life on Earth becomes a real struggle.

So, what's causing all this environmental trouble? Well, one big reason is that there are just so many people around, and we're using up a lot of stuff like land, food, water, air, and even fossil fuels and minerals. Cutting down a bunch of trees (we call it deforestation) is also a big problem because it messes up the whole ecosystem.

Then there's pollution—air, water, and soil pollution. It's like throwing a wrench into the gears of nature, making everything go wonky. And you've probably heard about things like the ozone layer getting thinner, global warming, weird weather, and glaciers melting. These are all signs that our environment is in trouble.

But don't worry, we can do things to make it better:

Plant more trees—they're like nature's superheroes, helping balance everything out.

Follow the 3 R's: Reuse stuff, reduce waste, and recycle. It's like giving our planet a high-five.

Ditch the plastic bags—they're not great for our landscapes.

Think about how many people there are and try to slow down the population growth.

By doing these things, we're basically giving our planet a little TLC (tender loving care), and that's how we can keep our environment clean and healthy for everyone.

Policy and Regulation:

Governments and institutions play a vital role in shaping environmental policies and regulations. Strong and enforceable laws are essential to curb activities that harm the environment. This includes regulations on emissions, waste disposal, and protection of natural habitats. International cooperation is also crucial to address global environmental challenges, as issues like climate change know no borders.

The Role of Technology:

Technology can be a double-edged sword in environmental conservation. While some technological advancements contribute to environmental degradation, others offer solutions. Innovative technologies in renewable energy, waste management, and sustainable agriculture can significantly reduce our impact on the environment. Embracing and investing in eco-friendly technologies is a step towards a greener and more sustainable future.

Conclusion:

Our environment is not just a collection of trees, rivers, and animals; it's the foundation of our existence. Understanding the interconnectedness of all living things and recognizing our responsibility as stewards of the Earth is essential. By adopting sustainable practices, fostering education and awareness, implementing effective policies, and embracing eco-friendly technologies, we can work towards healing our planet. The choices we make today will determine the world we leave for future generations – a world that can either flourish in its natural beauty or struggle under the weight of environmental degradation. It's our collective responsibility to ensure that it's the former.

FAQs on Environment Essay

1. What is the Environment?

The environment constitutes the entire ecosystem that includes plants, animals and microorganisms, sunlight, air, rain, temperature, humidity, and other climatic factors. It is basically the surroundings where we live. The environment regulates the life of all living beings on Earth.

2. What are the Three Kinds of Environments?

Biotic Environment: It includes all biotic factors or living forms like plants, animals, and microorganisms.

Abiotic Environment: It includes non-living factors like temperature, light, rainfall, soil, minerals, etc. It comprises the atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere.

Built Environment: It includes buildings, streets, houses, industries, etc. 

3. What are the Major Factors that Lead to the Degradation of the Environment?

The factors that lead to the degradation of the environment are:

The rapid increase in the population.

Growth of industrialization and urbanization.

Deforestation is making the soil infertile (soil that provides nutrients and home to millions of organisms).

Over-consumption of natural resources.

Ozone depletion, global warming, and the greenhouse effect.

4. How do we Save Our Environment?

We must save our environment by maintaining a balanced and healthy ecosystem. We should plant more trees. We should reduce our consumption and reuse and recycle stuff. We should check on the increase in population. We should scarcely use our natural and precious resources. Industries and factories should take precautionary measures before dumping their wastes into the water bodies.

5. How can we protect Mother Earth?

Ways to save Mother Earth include planting more and more trees, using renewable sources of energy, reducing the wastage of water, saving electricity, reducing the use of plastic, conservation of non-renewable resources, conserving the different flora and faunas, taking steps to reduce pollution, etc.

6. What are some ways that humans impact their environment?

Humans have influenced the physical environment in many ways like overpopulation, pollution, burning fossil fuels, and deforestation. Changes like these have generated climate change, soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water. These negative impacts can affect human behavior and can prompt mass migrations or battles over clean water.  

7. Why is the environment of social importance?

Human beings are social animals by nature. They spend a good amount of time in social environments. Their responsibility towards the environment is certainly important because these social environments might support human beings in both personal development goals as well as career development goals.

The right to a healthy environment: 6 things you need to know

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On 8 October, loud and unusual applause reverberated around the chamber of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. A battle fought for decades by environmental activists and rights’ defenders, had finally borne fruit.

For the first time ever, the United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world, passed a resolution recognising access to a healthy and sustainable environment as a universal right.

The text also calls on countries to work together, and with other partners, to implement this breakthrough.

“Professionally that was probably the most thrilling experience that I ever have had or that I ever will have. It was a massive team victory. It took literally millions of people, and years and years of work to achieve this resolution”, said David Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment, who was in the room when President Nazhat Shameem from Fiji, brought down her gavel, announcing the voting results.

43 votes in favour and 4 abstentions counted as a unanimous victory to pass the text that cites the efforts of at least 1,100 civil society, child, youth and indigenous people’s organizations, who have been campaigning for global recognition, implementation and protection of the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.  

SREnvironment

But why is this recognition important, and what does it mean for climate change-affected communities?

Here are six key things you need to know, compiled by us here at UN News.

1. First, let’s recall what the Human Rights Council does, and what its resolutions mean

The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system, responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them.

The Council is made up of 47 UN Member States which are elected by the absolute majority in the General Assembly and represent every region of the world.

Human Rights Council resolutions are “political expressions” that represent the position of the Council’s members (or the majority of them) on particular issues and situations. These documents are drafted and negotiated among States with to advance specific human rights issues.

They usually provoke a debate among States, civil society and intergovernmental organisations; establish new ‘standards’, lines or principles of conduct; or reflect existing rules of conduct.

Resolutions are drafted by a “core group”: Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland, were the countries who brought resolution 48/13 for its adoption in the council, recognising for the first time that having a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is indeed a human right.

2. It was a resolution decades in the making

In 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Environment in Stockholm , which ended with a historical declaration, was the first one to place environmental issues at the forefront of international concerns and marked the start of a dialogue between industrialized and developing countries on the link between economic growth, the pollution of the air, water and the ocean, and the well-being of people around the world.

UN Member States back then, declared that people have a fundamental right to "an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being," calling for concrete action. They called for both the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly to act.

Since 2008, the Maldives, a Small Island Developing State on the frontline of climate change impacts, has been tabling a series of resolutions on human rights and climate change, and in the last decade, on human rights and environment.

In the last few years, the work of the Maldives and its allied States, as well as the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment and different NGOs, have been moving the international community towards the declaration of a new universal right.

Support for UN recognition of this right grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea was endorsed by UN's Secretary-General António Guterres and High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, as well as more than 1,100 civil society organisations from around the world. Nearly 70 states on the Human Rights Council also added their voices to a call by the council’s core group on human rights and environment for such action, and 15 UN agencies also sent a rare joint declaration advocating for it.

“A surge in emerging zoonotic diseases, the climate emergency, pervasive toxic pollution and a dramatic loss of biodiversity have brought the future of the planet to the top of the international agenda”, a group of UN experts said in a statement released in June this year, on World Environment Day.

3. It was a David vs Goliath story…

To finally reach the vote and decision, the core group lead intensive inter-governmental negotiations, discussions and even experts’ seminars, over the past few years.

Levy Muwana, a Youth Advocate and environmentalist from Zambia, participated in one of the seminars.

“As a young child, I was affected with bilharzia, a parasitic disease, because I was playing in the dirty water near my household.

A few years later, a girl died in my community from cholera. These events are sadly common and occurring more often.

Water-born infectious diseases are increasing worldwide, especially across sub-Saharan Africa, due to the changing climate”, he told Council members last August.

Muwana made clear that his story was not unique, as millions of children worldwide are significantly impacted by the devastating consequences of the environmental crisis. “1.7 million of them die every year from inhaling contaminated air or drinking polluted water”, he said.

The activist, along with over 100.000 children and allies had signed a petition for the right to a healthy environment to be recognised , and they were finally heard.

“There are people who want to continue the process of exploiting the natural world and have no reservations about harming people to do that. So those very powerful opponents have kept this room from going forward for decades.

It's almost like a David and Goliath story that all of these civil society organizations were able to overcome this powerful opposition, and now we have this new tool that we can use to fight for a more just and sustainable world”, says David Boyd, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment.

4. But what good is a non-legally binding resolution?

Mr. Boyd explains that the resolution should be a catalyst for more ambitious action on every single environmental issue that we face.

“It really is historic, and it really is meaningful for everyone because we know right now that 90% of people in the world are breathing polluted air.

“So right off the bat if we can use this resolution as a catalyst for actions to clean up air quality, then we're going to be improving the lives of billions of people”, he emphasizes.

Human Rights Council resolutions might not be legally binding, but they do contain strong political commitments.

“The best example we have of what kind of a difference these UN resolutions make is if we look back at the resolutions in 2010 that for the first time recognized the right to water . That was a catalyst for governments all over the world who added the right to water to their constitutions, their highest and strongest laws”, Mr. Boyd says.

The Rapporteur cites Mexico, which after adding the right to water in the constitution, has now extended safe drinking water to over 1,000 rural communities.

“There are a billion people who can't just turn on the tap and have clean, safe water coming out, and so you know, for a thousand communities in rural Mexico, that's an absolutely life-changing improvement. Similarly, Slovenia, after they put the right to water in their constitution because of the UN resolutions, they then took action to bring safe drinking water to Roma communities living in informal settlements on city outskirts”.

According to the UN Environment Programme ( UNEP ), the recognition of the right to a healthy environment at the global level will support efforts to address environmental crises in a more coordinated, effective and non-discriminatory manner, help achieve the Sustainable Developing Goals, provide stronger protection of rights and of the people defending the environment, and help create a world where people can live in harmony with nature.

5. The link between human rights and environment is indisputable

Mr. Boyd has witnessed firsthand the devastating impact that climate change has already had on people’s rights.

In his first country mission as a Special Rapporteur, he met the first community in the world that had to be completely relocated due to rising sea levels, coastal erosion and increased intensity of storm surges.

“You know, from this beautiful waterfront paradise on a Fijian island, they had to move their whole village inland about three kilometers. Older persons, people with disabilities, pregnant women, they're now separated from the ocean that has sustained their culture and their livelihoods for many generations”.

These situations are not only seen in developing countries. Mr. Boyd also visited Norway where he met Sami indigenous people also facing the impacts of climate change.

“I heard really sad stories there. For thousands of years their culture and their economy has been based on reindeer herding, but now because of warm weather in the winters, even in Norway, north of the Arctic Circle, sometimes it rains.

“The reindeer who literally for thousands of years had been able to scrape away snow during the winter to get to the lichens and mosses that sustained them, now can't scrape away the ice - and they’re starving”.

The story repeats itself in Kenya, where pastoralists are losing their livestock because of droughts that are being exacerbated by climate change.

“ They have done nothing to cause this global crisis and they’re the ones who are suffering, and that's why it's such a human rights issue .

“That's why it's such an issue of justice. Wealthy countries and wealthy people need to start to pay for the pollution they've created so that we can help these vulnerable communities and these vulnerable peoples to adapt and to rebuild their lives”, Mr. Boyd said.

6. What’s next?

The Council resolution includes an invitation to the UN General Assembly to also consider the matter. The Special Rapporteur says he is “cautiously optimistic” that the body will pass a similar resolution within the next year.

“We need this. We need governments and we need everyone to move with a sense of urgency. I mean, we're living in a climate, biodiversity, and pollution crisis, and also a crisis of these emerging diseases like COVID which have environmental root causes. And so that's why this resolution is critically important because it says to every government in the world ‘you have to put human rights at the centre of climate action, of conservation, of addressing pollution and of preventing future pandemics’”.

For Dr. Maria Neira, the World Health Organization’s ( WHO ) environment chief, the resolution is already having important repercussions and a mobilizing impact.

“The next step will be how we translate that on the right to clean air and whether we can push, for instance, for the recognition of WHO’S Global Air Quality Guidelines and the levels of exposure to certain pollutants at a country level. It will also help us to move certain legislation and standards at the national level”, she explains.

Air pollution, primarily the result of burning fossil fuels, which also drives climate change, causes 13 deaths per minute worldwide. Dr. Neira calls for the end of this “absurd fight” against the ecosystems and environment.

“All the investments need to be on ensuring access to safe water and sanitation, on making sure that electrification is done with renewable energy and that our food systems are sustainable.”

According to WHO, achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement would save millions of lives every year due to improvements in air quality, diet, and physical activity, among other benefits.

“The climate emergency has become a matter of survival for many populations. Only systemic, profound and rapid changes will make it possible to respond to this global ecological crisis", says the Special Rapporteur.

For Mr. Boyd, the approval of the historical resolution in the Human Rights Council was a ‘paradoxical’ moment.

“There was this incredible sense of accomplishment and also at the exact same time a sense of how much work remains to be done to take these beautiful words and translate them into changes that will make people's lives better and make our society more sustainable”.

The newly declared right to a healthy and clean environment will also hopefully influence positively negotiations during the upcoming UN Climate Conference COP26, in Glasgow, which has been described by the UN chief as the last chance to ‘turn the tide’ and end the war on our planet.  

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Healthy Environment, Healthy People

Investing in environmental sustainability can serve as an insurance policy for health and human well-being

The degradation of the environment – the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, and the ecosystems which sustain us – is estimated to be responsible for at least a quarter of the global total burden of disease, according to a new UNEP report entitled Healthy Environment, Healthy People

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reflect the common understanding that a healthy environment is integral to the full enjoyment of basic human rights, including the rights to life, health, food, water and sanitation, and quality of life.

Directly tackling the inter-linkages between environment and human health presents new and interwoven opportunities to meet the SDGs in a more cost-effective and beneficial manner. To “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” (SDG3) – which includes a specific target related to air quality - cannot be achieved over the long term without explicit action on terrestrial ecosystems (SDG15), oceans (SDG14), cities (SDG11), water and sanitation (SDG6).

Air pollution is the world’s largest single environmental risk to health (some 7 million people across the world die each year due to everyday exposure to poor air quality), but it cannot be viewed in isolation.

Environmental degradation is costly Environmental degradation is estimated to cause 174-234 times as many premature deaths as occur in conflicts annually. Disproportionate impacts of environmental harms are evident on specific groups: the poor, the young, the elderly, women and migrant workers, the report says.

Zika, Ebola, MERS, SARS, Marburg… new zoonotic diseases (spread from animals to humans) are currently emerging every four months, with the main drivers being exponential population growth, intensive livestock breeding, (there are 36 billion domestic animals on the planet) and concomitant disturbed environments and biodiversity loss. Strengthening healthy ecosystems is key to preventing or slowing the emergence of these costly diseases. A key need is for greater investment in integrated surveillance of wildlife, livestock and human health.

The financial costs of environmentally related health risks are generally in the range of 5-10 per cent of GDP, with air pollution taking the highest toll. Evidence exists, however, of the catalytic and multiple benefits of investing in environmental quality in terms of development, poverty reduction, resource security, reduced inequities and reduced risks to human health and well-being.

A 2012 UNEP report entitled The Role and Contribution of Montane Forests and Related Ecosystem Services to the Kenyan Economy showed that well-managed montane forest cover reduced malarial disease prevalence, and that malaria resulted in additional health costs to the Government as well as labour productivity losses.

The montane forests of Kenya, better known as Kenya’s `Water Towers’, produce direct economic value for its citizens. This value accrues not only from the production of various timber- and non-timber forest products, but also from a range of regulating ecosystem services that provide an insurance value to several key economic sectors. There is also a secondary or indirect multiplier effect associated with the direct economic value of the Water Towers... Montane forests have consistently been undervalued in conventional national accounting, says the abstract of the report.

The UNEP Healthy Environment, Healthy People report indicates that lack of access to clean water and sanitation causes 58 per cent of cases of diarrhoeal diseases in low and middle-income countries. Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation or insufficient hygiene result in 3.5 million deaths worldwide, representing 25 per cent of the premature deaths of children younger than 14, it says.

Mental health There is growing evidence to suggest that exposure to natural environments can be associated with mental health benefits.

Clean air and water, sanitation and green spaces, safe workplaces can enhance people’s quality of life: reduced mortality and morbidity, healthier lifestyles, improved productivity of workers and their families, improve lives of women, children and elderly and are crucial to mental health.

Mental health issues rank among the 10 largest non-fatal threats in most countries, according to the report.

There is growing evidence to suggest that exposure to natural environments can be associated with mental health benefits. Proximity to greenspace has been associated with lower levels of stress and reduced symptomology for depression and anxiety, while interacting with nature can improve cognition for children with attention deficits and individuals with depression. A 2014 epidemiological study has shown that people who move to greener urban areas benefit from sustained improvements in their mental health. “It is becoming increasingly evident that the 2.2 million years our genus has spent in natural environments are consequential to modern mental health… The accumulating strength of research from multiple disciplines makes it difficult to dismiss the clinical relevancy of natural environments in 21st century mental health care,” says another report .

An integrated approach Based on evidence of the linkages between poor environmental quality and health, the report identifies several priority problem areas for urgent policy attention, including:

• Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation or insufficient hygiene which cause mortality, morbidity and lost economic productivity;
• Nutritionally poor diet composition and quality, as well as increased physical inactivity, which has increased the growth of non-communicable diseases throughout the world; and
• Degraded ecosystems and stresses to the Earth’s natural systems, which reduce ecosystem services that support human health, enhance exposure to natural disasters, food security, and at times give rise to disease outbreaks.

Climate change is exacerbating the scale and intensity of these environment-related health risks, and is acknowledged as a major health risk multiplier, with existing impacts that are expected to increasingly affect human health including through negative changes to land, oceans, biodiversity and access to freshwater, and the increasing frequency and higher impact of natural disasters.

The report’s findings provide a strong basis for adopting an integrated approach for improving human health and well-being through increased engagement by the health sector in ecosystem management and decision-making. They also identify integrated actions and strategies, such as:

DECOUPLE RESOURCE USE AND CHANGE LIFESTYLES: Use fewer resources per unit of economic output produced and reduce the environmental impact of any resources used in production and consumption activities through more efficient practices.

ENHANCE ECOSYSTEM RESILIENCE AND PROTECTION OF THE PLANET’S NATURAL SYSTEMS: Build capacity of the environment, economies and societies to anticipate, respond to and recover from disturbances and shocks through: agro-ecosystem restoration and sustainable farming systems; strengthening ecosystem restoration, in particular wetlands, dryland vegetation, coastal zones and watersheds, including through reforestation; reducing livestock and logging pressures to increase resilience and mitigate extreme weather conditions of storms, drought and floods.

Addressing the nexus between environment and human health through delivering on environmental sustainability can provide a common platform for meeting many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through multiplier effects that can accelerate and sustain progress across multiple SDGs, investing in environmental sustainability can serve as an insurance policy for health and human well-being, the report concludes.

• Sustainable development goals

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Healthy environments: why do they matter and what can we do?

Importance of Cleanliness Essay

500 words essay on importance of cleanliness.

Each one of us enjoys living in a clean environment. We all have the ability to maintain cleanliness as it is not a tough task. Cleanliness is a habitual process that we must do on a daily basis. For instance, personal hygiene and environmental cleanliness are equally important to lead a happy life. The importance of cleanliness essay will explain this in further detail.

Importance of Cleanliness

Cleanliness is a very essential component of human life in both physical and spiritual terms. Spiritual cleanliness refers to following the beliefs and rituals of your religion. On the other hand, the physical one is essential for the well-being of and existence of humanity.

It is essential to lead a healthy and well life. In fact, health and cleanliness are related to each other. To get good health, one must practice hygiene. It is essential to practice maintaining good health and prevent diseases .

Moreover, equally important is the cleanliness of our environment. When you maintain cleanliness, you can prevent disease and lead a healthy life. Health professionals advocate hygienic practices to prolong the lives of individuals.

Moreover, when the environment is clean, safety is enabled. For instance, we must ensure no spilling of water to prevent people from falling. Similarly, clearing bushes around homes will offer safety from harmful insects and animals.

Further, we must not only clean the environment but organize the environment carefully. In other words, put away harmful objects to prevent accidents. Similarly, in the food industry, cleanliness is of the utmost importance.

It ensures the well-being of the consumers. Most importantly, cleanliness enables the extension of a lifespan of an object. When you keep the metallic objects free from dust and rust, they will have a longer shelf life.

Thus, we see how cleanliness is important in every sphere of life. Whether it is living or inanimate objects, everything requires cleanliness. Moreover, it is also a moral virtue that makes people admirable.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

How to Maintain Cleanliness

There are many ways through which one can maintain cleanliness and keep themselves and the environment happy. A major way of maintaining cleanliness is brushing and bathing regularly.

Similarly, it is also important to wash hand as often as possible, mostly before and after meals. With the onset of the coronavirus, it has become even more important to wash our hands repeatedly.

Further, we must keep our nails trimmed and eat healthy food. Moving on to environmental cleanliness, we must clean the mess in our surroundings regularly. Try your best to avoid plastic bags and littering around by throwing garbage carelessly.

It is essential to effectively dispose of waste and wastewater . Most importantly, adopt reusing and recycling techniques to monitor pollution levels. Thus, we must practice all this and more to ensure cleanliness.

Conclusion of Importance of Cleanliness Essay

We must all do our bit to maintain cleanliness in our life. There are many initiatives launched by the government to practice cleanliness but it won’t work unless all of us do. It helps in inculcating good habits in citizens of the country. Along with practising it ourselves, we must also stop others from disturbing cleanliness.

FAQ of Importance of Cleanliness Essay

Question 1: What is the importance of cleanliness?

Answer 1: Maintaining cleanliness is a vital part of healthy living as it helps to improve our personality by staying clean externally and internally. It is everybody’s responsibility and one should keep themselves and their surroundings clean and hygienic.

Question 2: What are the effects of cleanliness?

Answer 2: Cleanliness has many positive effects on everyone. It directly impacts the ability to learn and has a significant effect on the mind of students. When there is a dirty environment, it may increases levels of stress. Moreover, cleanliness keeps one happy.

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Advances in research on bacterial oxidation of mn(ii): a visualized bibliometric analysis based on citespace.

1. Introduction

2. materials and methods, 2.1. data source and retrieval strategy, 2.2. data analysis and visualization, 3.1. trend analysis of annual publications, 3.2. analysis of countries and institutions, 3.3. analysis of disciplinary classifications, 3.4. analysis of authors of co-occurrence and co-citation, 3.5. analysis of journal citations, 3.6. analysis of co-cited references, 3.7. analysis of temporal and burst of keywords, 3.8. analysis of keyword clusters, 4. discussion, 4.1. research hotspots and trends, 4.1.1. species and ecological distribution, 4.1.2. factors influencing bacterial mn(ii) oxidation, 4.1.3. mechanisms of mn(ii) oxidation in bacteria, 4.1.4. environmental applications, 4.2. outlook, 5. conclusions, author contributions, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Mo, W.; Wang, H.; Wang, J.; Wang, Y.; Liu, Y.; Luo, Y.; He, M.; Cheng, S.; Mei, H.; He, J.; et al. Advances in Research on Bacterial Oxidation of Mn(II): A Visualized Bibliometric Analysis Based on CiteSpace. Microorganisms 2024 , 12 , 1611. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12081611

Mo W, Wang H, Wang J, Wang Y, Liu Y, Luo Y, He M, Cheng S, Mei H, He J, et al. Advances in Research on Bacterial Oxidation of Mn(II): A Visualized Bibliometric Analysis Based on CiteSpace. Microorganisms . 2024; 12(8):1611. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12081611

Mo, Wentao, Hang Wang, Jianghan Wang, Yue Wang, Yunfei Liu, Yi Luo, Minghui He, Shuang Cheng, Huiting Mei, Jin He, and et al. 2024. "Advances in Research on Bacterial Oxidation of Mn(II): A Visualized Bibliometric Analysis Based on CiteSpace" Microorganisms 12, no. 8: 1611. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12081611

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UB faculty member turns to environment with essay collection

By BERT GAMBINI

Published July 31, 2024

UB faculty member Laura Marris turns to the environment in her debut essay collection, “The Age of Loneliness” (Graywolf Press).

It’s her first solo-authored book since translating into English Albert Camus’ “The Plague.” Her work on the French literary classic for the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group was the first updated translation of Camus’ book for an American audience since 1948.

Marris, visiting assistant professor in the Department of English, will launch the essay collection with a reading and conversation at 6 p.m. Aug. 6 at Fitz Books, 433 Ellicott St., Buffalo.

Marris’ thoughtful meditations in “The Age of Loneliness” call attention to the growing separation between people and more-than-human stories of place. By situating personal experience in the context of natural history, she provides readers with clear sightlines toward the history of local places and an appreciation for their ecology and scales of time.

“I hope people will use these essays as an occasion to investigate and sit with the human and more-than-human histories that are unfolding in the places of their own lives, especially the histories that might previously have been invisible,” she says.

The idea for the book emerged in 2018, Marris’ first year in Buffalo, when she was commuting to her job at Boston University for part of each week, as she and her husband worked to get two jobs in the same place. She started reading about ecological issues to put the loneliness of her commute into perspective.

“At first, I didn’t think personal loneliness and landscapes were related, but I began to see connections between issues of ecology and my lonely commutes,” says Marris. “My long-distance relationship was also an estranged relationship to the natural world.”

In many ways, the closer we are to a place the harder it is to see what is missing. Familiarity softens perceptions, and a decline in what was once common can escape notice as it becomes increasingly scarce, she notes.

“If you’re not paying attention, if you’re not thinking about absence, then it’s difficult to recognize the changes in landscapes that are occurring every day,” she says.

Landscape, for Marris, is an appropriate representation for the way humans have interacted with their environment because it can imply not only what’s seen, but what has been modified.

“Everything around us is touched by humans,” she says. “There isn’t a pristine place that lacks human imprint.”

Although the Anthropocene is customarily used to identify the current geological era — defined by human impacts in earth’s fossil record — Marris instead uses her essays to explore the implications of the Eremocene. Coined by biologist E.O. Wilson, the Eremocene, or the age of loneliness, is a time of declining abundance and humanity’s subsequent isolation if humans allow wildlife loss to continue unabated.

“It’s interesting to investigate things through the lens of loneliness because the root word of Eremocene can mean a lonely person or a desolated place,” says Marris. “If we make a place lonely, then we become lonely ourselves because that reciprocity is a reflection of the broader ecosystem.”

But places are resilient, and the underlying sense of hope in Marris’ book comes with recognizing that measurable action doesn’t need to be a grand effort. Community projects can make a big difference.

“Community science, for example, which is an important part of the book, is a way of discovering what’s happing in a place, from bird counts, to planting a garden, to helping with a survey,” she says. “The gains are impressive when people push their grief slightly toward longing for, and cultivating, the abundant landscapes they’d like to see.”

And through the process of writing the book, Marris feels that change in herself.

“I began in a more alienated place as a commuter, writing and returning to the woods,” she says. “I didn’t expect the book to moderate my own fears, but through the ground-truth of community science, I became more grounded in my personal and ecological relationship to these places.”

Awareness can inspire change. And it’s time to start looking, since, as Marris points out through a quote in the book from Walt Whitman, “much unseen is also here.”

Virginia Tech professor's research influences a historic expansion of Medicare’s mental health coverage

In the first half of 2024, approximately 43,000 mental health professionals opted to enroll as independent Medicare providers.

• Samantha Smith
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In the last six months, the United States has seen the largest expansion of Medicare’s mental health coverage in history – and a Virginia Tech professor helped make it happen. 

Historically, the more than 60 million Americans covered by Medicare, which is federal health insurance for people older than 65 years old, were not able to access services from marriage and family therapists or mental health counselors. That is until a law, heavily influenced by research at Virginia Tech, went into effect in early 2024 .  

The law gave mental health professionals not previously covered the opportunity to enroll as Medicare providers. So far, about 43,000 mental health counselors and marriage and family therapists have opted in, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services , allowing those 60 million people covered by Medicare to have access to services they wouldn’t have had before.

Matthew Fullen , associate professor of counselor education at Virginia Tech, has been one of the nation’s leaders in this arena. For years, he’s been advocating for health care professionals to be able to accept Medicare coverage. And by working with the American Counseling Association (ACA), the National Board of Certified Counselors , and other organizations associated with the Medicare Mental Health Workforce Coalition, his ideas finally took hold and influenced policy.  

"Modernizing mental health access for Medicare recipients is incredibly timely,” said Fullen, who has worked at Virginia Tech for seven years. “Working alongside colleagues and graduate students to articulate why this change is needed has been the highlight of my career."

Why is the law important?

This law opened the doors for about 400,000 counselors and marriage and family therapists to accept Medicare payments. 

Those providers account for about 40 percent of America’s mental health workforce and have largely been unable to accept Medicare enrollees who couldn’t afford to pay out of pocket until now. 

So far this year, 36,000 licensed counselors and 7,000 licensed marriage and family therapists have enrolled as Medicare providers.  

According to the Administration for Community Living (ACL), the United States will see major growth in those covered by Medicare due to an aging population, which means the number of providers will need to increase to keep pace. Right now, there are roughly 65 million older adults covered by Medicare. The ACL predicts that number will hit 90 million to 95 million in the next 20 or 25 years. 

History of Fullen's work

Before the most recent update to Medicare coverage, the policy hadn’t been updated since 1989. 

Recognizing that this legislation was in desperate need of an update, Fullen led research by students and faculty at Virginia Tech, both through the School of Education and the Institute for Society, Culture and Environment , with the focus of defining and describing the impacts of the outdated Medicare policy. 

“The research that Dr. Fullen and his team were able to produce was, by all accounts, the central reason that this advocacy effort finally came to fruition,” said Gerard Lawson, interim director for the School of Education . “There were thousands upon thousands of older adults, veterans, and individuals with disabilities who were in desperate need of mental health support and were waiting months for appointments. This was especially true for people living in rural areas. Stakeholders that had been struggling with this issue for decades needed data to help legislators understand the scale and scope of the problem, and Dr. Fullen’s research did just that.”   

That research then contributed to a larger conversation at the legislative level, helping lawmakers understand how the outdated policy had tangible negative effects in communities nationwide. 

“What that research trajectory helped to define was, ‘How many providers are being impacted by this outdated policy?'” said Fullen. “Then, we added qualitative research focused on individual Medicare recipients who had not been able to find services because so much of the mental health workforce was not included.”

According to Lawson, research like this is the bread and butter of the School of Education’s counselor education program . 

“This project and the positive impact made by this research and advocacy are right in the wheelhouse for faculty in our counselor education program,” said Lawson. “The faculty in that program are actively engaged in research and advocacy to address thorny issues like this one, as well as school climate and working conditions, rural school counseling, serving LGBT and gende-expansive clients, anti-racist pedagogy, and more. Research and advocacy go hand in hand, and the counselor education faculty are improving the lives of individuals who are receiving mental health services on a day-to-day basis.”   

Why did it take so long?

The actual administrative process of making changes to the policy isn’t easy. Medicare is federal law, meaning any revisions to the policy require an act of Congress. But as former chair of the American Counseling Association’s government relations committee, Fullen is no stranger to the work it takes to make legislative change. 

While there were some obvious hurdles, years of advocacy work paired with the change in public discourse helped change the tide. 

“Thanks to Dr. Fullen’s dedication to the counseling field and support for increased mental health access, mental health counselors, and marriage and family therapists are seen as major actors in addressing the needs of older adults with mental health conditions and increasingly sought by behavioral health systems and health care providers for their expertise in the older adult space,” said Joel Miller, executive consultant with the National Board for Certified Counselors and Affiliates.    

Much of that advocacy work was spearheaded by the Medicare Mental Health Workforce Coalition . The CEO of the American Counseling Association, which is a part of the coalition, explained that Fullen’s work has been “pivotal” in moving this landmark legislation forward.  

“His relentless advocacy and active participation in the Medicare Mental Health Workforce Coalition, along with his seminal 2019 research which analyzed the impact of the Medicare coverage gap on counseling professionals, is helping to provide those in need with greater access to essential mental health services,” said the association's CEO Shawn Boynes.  

Another catalyst that helped change perceptions of mental health was the pandemic because it pushed the needs of often overlooked populations into the spotlight. While a study from the Administration for Community Living shows that older adults fared better in terms of mental health during the height of the pandemic when compared to younger generations, isolation during COVID-19’s peak made discussing mental health more mainstream. 

While changing federal law is no easy feat, Fullen said there was overwhelming bipartisan support behind the policy updates. 

What’s next? 

Now that licensed counselors and marriage and family therapists are approved providers under Medicare, Fullen said his job on the panel is to continue to advise the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on mental health policies. 

Looking forward, Fullen said a major goal is to aim for as many providers to enroll as possible. With the influx of new providers, there will also need to be training to help prepare them on how to best help older adults specifically. 

Fullen’s appointment to the federal Advisory Panel on Outreach and Education is for two years, and he is one of several professionals on the panel focusing on mental health.  

“It's a unique opportunity to represent the mental health community,” said Fullen. “It’s like adding to a part of the conversation that has really not been there before because we didn't get invited to these panels when we weren't part of the program.”

Jenny Kincaid Boone

540-314-7207

• College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences
• College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences research
• Institute for Society, Culture and Environment
• School of Education
• Transdisciplinary research

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Where Tim Walz Stands on the Issues

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Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the newly announced running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris, has worked with his state’s Democratic-controlled Legislature to enact an ambitious agenda of liberal policies: free college tuition for low-income students, free meals for schoolchildren, legal recreational marijuana and protections for transgender people.

“You don’t win elections to bank political capital,” Mr. Walz wrote last year about his approach to governing. “You win elections to burn political capital and improve lives.”

Republicans have slammed these policies as big-government liberalism and accused Mr. Walz of taking a hard left turn since he represented a politically divided district in Congress years ago.

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Another bill he signed legally shields patients, and their medical providers, if they receive an abortion in Minnesota after traveling from a state where abortion is banned.

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