The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Health at the heart of climate

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 07, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Health at the heart of climate

Remaining healthy is a very important facet for happy living. Health is not merely a single day topic but a vital issue that is to be maintained throughout.

The World Health day not only signifies hygiene, food habits, physical strength, and health care consciousness of individuals. It has got global significance and historical meaning. 7th of April marks the founding day of World Health organization which functions toward achieving the global public health.

Local to Global

India though a topper in population explosion hardly holds any relevance with global warming or acid rain at present. But in a decade or two our nation now on the racecourse for global economy would turnaround as a global competitor in pollution. Recent researches reveal that not people overpopulation but consumption overpopulation acts as a major cause for degradations in global climate.

Madurai is now developing as a hotspot for IT sectors and various MNCs. Though these corporate sectors may contribute very less to pollution, urbanization and consumerism that inevitably come along with them have their direct impact on global climate.

Increase in the number of exotic cars, motor vehicles while decrease in public transport systems and round the clock usage of electrical and electronic home appliances, hi-tech gadgets such as light bulbs, refrigerators, and computers all are retail producers of global warming pollution. More and more the consumption of goods, services, minerals and non renewable resources hikes to the greater extent trash, green house gas and carbon dioxide mount. Consequently, weather pattern change triggering vector-prone diseases and quite a large number of deaths are occurring in recent times in poor countries because of excessive heat. It is obvious that many of the leading killer diseases are sensitive to climatic conditions.

A Day for Us

The impact of climate change would be difficult to reverse in a few years. And it is high time for people and the government to do the needful. In fact a number of steps to prevent and cure are going on like commencing research centres and educating the youth mass with recent version of environmental studies.

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen who calls to make development environment-inclusive and his emphasis upon the ‘freedom to lead pollution-free life’ need to be brought for open discourse.

Awareness campaigns and educative workshops that would activate people to go for alternative clean, natural and healthy living could be organized at different levels where every individual gets motivation to think globally and act locally.

M.Susithra