In tune with nature / Gro Harlem Brundtland

In tune with Nature by Mrs Gro Harlem Brundtland D uring the course of this century, the progress of civilisation has increasingly come into conflict with the natu- ral world. Air and water are being polluted by acid rain. The world climate is being threatened by the possibility of global warming. The destructive processes of desertification, deforestation and soil erosion are continuing. At the same time, the world popu- lation is growing faster than ever, and the gap between the industrialised and the developing countries continues to widen. A critical situation In our report on Our Common Future, the World Commission on Environment and Development {sometimes called the Brundtland Commission) pointed out that the situation is getting increasingly critical. At the present rate of development, we are rapidly depleting the natural resource base on which man's exist- ence depends. The evidence is grow- ing of a strong relationship between health and the environment. We are filling our environment and our food products with chemicals. Certain infec- tious diseases show signs of new gains as a result of increasing poverty and an inability to meet people's basic needs. Malnutrition remains a serious obstacle to health and to the development of human resources. If present trends continue, it will be 4 Former Prime Minister of Norway, Chairman of the Brundtland Commission impossible for the World Health Organization to realise its goal of "Health for all." Several steps are needed in order for all countries to contribute their share towards solving the global environmental problems: - Firstly, we have to spread more information about environment and development throughout the world. A heightened environmental awareness is necessary to ensure a reorientation of modem civilisation, so that we can achieve a new reconciliation with nature instead of appearing, as we so often do now, to be in conflict with it. - Secondly, this kind of adaptation will call for economic growth and social progress. It is essential that this growth should take place mainly in the developing countries, and that it shall not be confined, as it is at present, to countries that are already prosperous. Such growth must be used to relieve poverty and starvation. Only then will we free the resources that are needed to solve problems involving health and the environment. - Thirdly, we must strengthen interna- tional cooperation by a re-commitment to multilateralism. And, since the prob- lems are increasingly global, it is parti- cularly important that we strengthen the United Nations and its family of agencies. The efforts to achieve sus- tainable development require a sys- tematic and integrated effort by practically all sectors of international cooperation. The work of promoting environment and development can thus be a powerful stimulus to better coordination and more effective action within the UN system. WHO was the first specialised agency of the UN to take concrete steps in response to the General Assembly's call for a follow-up of the report on Our Common Future. It has thereby provided leadership to the effort now needed, both interna- tionally and in member countries. All the more, therefore, does WHO deserve our strong support in the formidable tasks ahead. The initiative now being taken to focus on the destructive effects that damage to the environment has on world health will be one of the mainstays of the efforts which lie ahead. WHO's main goals also include making the national and international authorities, as well as the general public, aware of the close correlation between health and the environment. Is our task impossible? To this I would answer firmly: No, it is not. In Our Common Future, we pointed out that there are grounds for hope and optimism. For never have the world's human resources been greater than they are today. Never before have we had better insight into these prob- lems. If we act according to the slogan of World Health Day 1990 - "Our planet - our health: Think globally - act locally" - I am convinced that we can manage to reverse the present negative trends, and to secure the resources to sustain a healthy environ- ment for the present generations and for those to come. • WORLD HEALTH, January- February 1990