UN: make environment a priority

The United Nations chief environment scientist, Jian Liu has called on nations and individuals to make the environment their number one priority in their day to day decisions.According to him, the environment has the potential to solve most of the complex issues confronting humans.He warned that the consequences of not taking action is profound.

‘‘So if you don’t take action now, if you don’t prioritise basically there is no way that you can continue economic development. You are not safe, your life is under threat and I don’t think this is something you should put at the bottom of your decision making list”,he said.

The 2015 Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health report revealed that diseases caused by air, water and soil pollution accounted for 9 million premature deaths globally.

‘‘Environmental pollution alone has claimed more lives than those who died in world war 2 and air pollution alone has caused more economic losses than world war 2. It is not something that can neglected but in a way for us to realise the need for sustainable development’‘, he added.

The report stated further that exposures to contaminated air, water and soil killed more people than smoking, hunger, natural disasters, war, AIDS, or malaria.The global financial costs of pollution are huge, totaling $4.6 trillion annually or 6.2% of global economic output.