World Health Body Links Ecosystem Injury To Human Health Problems

"This transformation of the planet has contributed to substantial net gains in health, well-being and economic development," said Dr. Lee, adding that not all regions and groups of people have benefited equally from this process. In the report, scientists warn that harmful consequences of ecosystem degradation to human health are already being felt and could grow worse over the next 50 years. Dr. Carlos Corvalan is an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Indiana's Purdue University. "The benefits should be acknowledged," said Dr. Carlos Corvalan of Purdue University, WHO's lead author on the report. "But these benefits are not enjoyed equally. And the risks we face now from ecosystem degradation, particularly among poor populations directly dependent on natural ecosystems for many basic needs, has to be addressed." The Health Synthesis Report is WHO's contribution to the broader Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a four year series of studies and reports, involving over 1,300 scientists, considering impacts on human wellbeing, past, present and future. Ecosystem services are absolutely vital to preventing disease and sustaining good health, the Health Synthesis report emphasizes. "Nature's goods and services are the ultimate foundations of life and health, even though in modern societies this fundamental dependency may be indirect, displaced in space and time, and therefore poorly recognized," writes Dr. Lee in his Forward to the report. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2005/2005-12-09-02.asp

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