Environmental degradation

Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife.

Environmental degradation is one of the ten threats officially cautioned by the High Level Threat Panel of the United Nations. The World Resources Institute (WRI), UNEP (the United Nations Environment Programme), UNDP (the United Nations Development Programme) and the World Bank have made public an important report on health and the environment worldwide on May 1, 1998. Environmental degradation is of many types. When natural habitats are destroyed or natural resources are depleted, environment is degraded.

"Environmental Change and Human Health", a special section of World Resources 1998-99 in this report describes how preventable illnesses and premature deaths are still occurring in very large numbers. If vast improvements are made in human health, millions of people will be living longer, healthier lives than ever before. In these poorest regions of the world an estimated one in five children will not live to see their fifth birthday, primarily because of environment-related diseases. Eleven million children die worldwide annually, equal to the combined populations of Norway and Switzerland, and mostly due to malaria, acute respiratory infections or diarrhoea — illnesses that are largely preventable.

See also

* Ecological collapse
* Ecologically sustainable development
* Exploitation of natural resources
* High Level Threat Panel of the United Nations
* Ten Threats identified by the United Nations
* United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
* United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
* World Resources Institute (WRI)

References

External links

* [http://dieoff.org/page165.htm Ecology of Increasing Disease "Population growth and environmental degradation"]
* [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1111/0004-5608.00156/abs/ Annals of the Association of American Geographers Environmental Change in the Kalahari: Integrated Land Degradation Studies for Nonequilibrium Dryland Environments]
* [http://meta2.com/PDB/Weekly/PDBEnvironmentalDegradation.pdf Public Daily Brief Threat: Environmental Degradation]
* [http://www.ourplanet.com/imgversn/95/roberts.html Focus: Environmental degradation is contributing to health threats worldwide]
* [http://www.tms.org/Meetings/Specialty/ED2005/home.html Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Systems-Water Reactors]
* [http://www.pacificwestcom.com/amazon Herndon and Gibbon Lieutenants United States Navy] The First North American Explorers of the Amazon Valley, by Historian Normand E. Klare. Actual Reports from the explorers are compared with present Amazon Basin conditions.
* [http://www.thenewpublicfinance.org/background/Measuring%20country%20performance_nov2006%20update.pdf Environmental Degradation Index by Jha & Murthy (for 174 countries)]