What is meant by a “Healthy Environment?”
A healthy environment indicates a surrounding in which a human being and other living creatures can live and thrive to their maximum ability. In a healthy environment, all living beings can live up to their full and optimal potential.
Clean air, potable (drinkable) water, good and sustainable agricultural practices, stable climate, overall public hygiene and sanitation, safe use of chemicals, controlling urbanization and urban sprawl in cities- having eco-cities, green alternatives etc. are all prerequisites to a healthy environment.
Importance of a Healthy Environment:
A healthy environment leads to a healthy people. A healthy environment is the only way we can strive for a better future for all living beings on the planet- human, flora and fauna. The importance of a healthy environment lies in the following facts:
- A healthy environment is good for reducing illnesses and diseases among the public due to adverse environmental conditions and events.
- The entire food web and life sustaining system depends on a healthy environment and it also includes the well-being of all species.
- The quality of all the life sustaining necessities like: food, air and water depends on the quality of the environment.
A bad environment with unclean, polluted air, toxic or polluted waters and food grown in contaminated soils etc. with excess use of chemicals impacts people with illnesses, health issues and other long term surfacing and resurfacing problems. Whereas, a clean air, water and good quality of food is a means of providing a healthy lifestyle and no health issues.
Also check out, Impacts of Climate Change on Water Resources of Pakistan
check out, List of Environmental Hazards and Challenges In Pakistan
Benefits of a Healthy Environment:
A healthy environment serves maximum benefits by:
- Reducing mortality and illnesses among the people
- It also benefits the overall health of the ecosystem and species.
- It protects species from going endangered like bees, cheetahs and other vulnerable creatures.
- It increases the productivity of the economic sector or people that can lead to overall better quality of life.
- Women, children and the elderly are the most impacted by unhealthy and unsafe environments and hence striving for a better quality of life go hand in hand with an improved and healthier environment.
How can we strive for a better, healthier lifestyle keeping the Environment in mind?
Environmental protection is everybody’s responsibility. Hence, everybody should try to minimize activities that impact the environment and individually adapt sustainable practices in their lives. On a larger scale, it is the responsibility of the governments and authority figureheads to revise policies and acts that can lead to a better, cleaner and healthier environment for all because individual efforts can only take a nation so far as their own neighborhoods.
Therefore, it is crucial that the government take measures to strive for national policies and incentives for reducing pollution, crop residue burning, smog control to name a few. Also see, Hazardous Air Quality of Lahore- Causes, Effects, Solutions
Incentives and measures for vulnerable areas due to climate change in various parts of Pakistan like Sindh, Punjab and Baluchistan. National Disaster Management Authorities need to be equipped with latest research, mitigation efforts, evacuation techniques and better communications in the event of a disaster.
Moreover, in the face of climate change and deteriorating environment, we are eventually going to face more outbreaks of diseases, natural events and irregular weather patterns that will make the environment more unhealthy.
Unless we curb the greenhouse gas emissions there is little hope for a healthier environment in the long term because even if the emissions are completely stopped right now, the temperatures will still remain the same globally for at least a thousand years before it can start to cool and return to pre-industrial levels. Thus, as some food for thought, it is very important to take environmental issues seriously by both the public and authorities.
Also check out, Top 10 Positive Environmental Stories From Last Year (2022)
Read: The Drastic Need of Environmental Change in Pakistan
also see, Sustainable Green Living In Pakistan – Combat Climate Change
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