The Global Environment Outlook-6: Spotlight on Synergy between Health and the Environment

The Global Environment Outlook-6: Healthy Planet, Healthy People (GEO-6), released on March 13, 2019, covers all environmental issues and their link to human health. In this article, Joyeeta Gupta, co-chair of the UN Environment's GEO-6 Report, provides a summary and draws points that are of relevance to India. For instance, 25 per cent of global disease/mortality is due to poor environmental conditions and unhealthy living circumstances, disasters and freshwater scarcity displace many more people than conflict: in 2016, 24.2 million people were displaced by environmental/water disasters. About 33 per cent of all food is wasted; while meat production requires some 77 per cent of agricultural land. The GEO-6 also shows that current policy is far behind the rising global trends of air pollution and climate change, loss of biodiversity, damage to the land, fresh water and ocean systems; and that much of the damage is irreversible. Though time is running out, she points out that there are still many pathways to a sustainable future, but these would require leadership in addition to bottom-up initiatives.