Human well being is dependent upon not one, but multiple and often inter related ecosystem services.Basic material for good life is largely based on provisioning services- yet other income generation such as recession agriculture depend more on soil moisture and sediment deposited during flooding - which are part of both regulating and provisioning services.Security from natural hazards has a strong link with regulation services. Human health can relate to purification and waste processing that are part of regulating services.Health also is linked to provisioning services of drinking water and food, and to cultural services that are important for mutual well being.
Presence of water also regulates local climate and prevent dust. Almost 17 tons per hectare a year of dust polluted with pesticide are blown off the dried portion of the Aral Sea in Eastern Turkmenistan.(O'Hara et al 2000,Benneon et al 2007)In Sistan Inland Delta of Iran people suffer from both physical and mental health problems due to the hot dusty climate and constant sandstorms that took place when the wetland area was dry for almost 7 years.When the wetland area was inundated , the same wind brought comfort in the form of refreshing water droplets blown over the villages (Meijer & Hajiamiri,2007)
In many parts of the world dam building promotes the propagation of pulmonate snails,the intermediate host of Schistosomiasis, a debilitating disease more than 200 million people suffer from.
Global economic value of water for drinking,washing , to grow food and for energy and industry is around 7.5 trillion dollar a year as on 2008.It is 15% of total value of world ecosystem services(Costanza et al 1997).
In US alone 4 to 33 million waterborne gastrointestinal diseases occur each year. More severe storms and floods can lead to - drownings,injuries and outbreaks of infectious diseases.Storms also damage basic infrastructure, with moisture leading to mould growth that can exacerbate allergy and respiratory illnesses.
More than 77 million tons of nitrogen is used in world agriculture each year costing 38.5 billion dollar (valued in 1995). Soil nitrogen is increased not only by commercial fertilizers but also by adding animal wastes and the retention of crop residues. Best source of nitrogen for crop and plants are " Nitrogen -fixing plants and obligate endophytic diazotroph bacteria(Dobereiner,1995)
More than 100 million Americans currently live in counties with Ozone levels above national EPA standards.Rising temperatures will increase ozone smog in many areas ,especially in cities.Increased ground-level ozone are associated with increased hospital admissions for people with asthma and will worsen the health of people suffering from cardiac or pulmonary disease.
A NEW PAIN KILLER FROM NATURE
Tiny fanged fish called blennies swimming in the coral reefs have unusual venom that could inspire new pain medications."The fish injects opioid peptides that act like heroine or morphine, inhibiting painrather than causing it." said Brian Fry( Associate professor of university of Queensland). Venom causes bitten fish to become slower in movement and dizzy by the action of opioid receptors.It could be a next blockbuster pain-killing drug.
Planetary health is the health of human civilization and
the state of the natural systems on which it depends.
The continuing degradation of natural systems threatens to reverse the health gains over the last century. We have mortgaged the health of future generations to realise economic and development gains in the present. "We have lived our lives that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. What is good for the world is good for us. That requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it. "Wendell Berry.
The risks we face lie within ourselves and societies we have created. Human beings live within a safe operating space of planetary existence. If the boundaries are breached ; conditions for the survival will be diminished. Currently natural systems are degraded to an extent unprecedented in history. Example; Casualty between environmental change through deforestation and Ebola virus disease outbreaks, loss of forest land has brought people and wildlife into closer contact with inherent risks of zoonotic diseases. Do no further harm and to create the systems to allow future generations to thrive and prosper - mentally, physically and materially.
Many ecosystem changes can alter the habitats and even populations of disease - transmitting vectors. Such changes may include :
Forest clearance ; construction of dams ; or irrigation ; and canal works; and deliberate or inadvertent water collection ( eg; in debris) . However the transmission of major infectious vector borne diseases such as malaria and yellow fever can never be described as entirely ecosystem - dependent but rather as a function of human interactions and ecosystem services. Along with improved management of ecosystem services other actions (eg; public education, medical and chemical interventions, and poverty alleviation) , all play a role in reducing and in some cases eliminating disease transmissions.
