Sustainability and Occupational Health - Tutorial 3 Flashcards
What is the definition of sustainability?
The ability to be “able to continue over a period of time”
What are some examples that the “person in the street” might think about relating to the ability of being “able to continue over time”
Is my bank balance positive at the end of every month?
Is servicing my car, which costs a lot, worth it in the long run?
Can I keep up this diet long term?
My knees are sore, maybe I should change sport
This job is exhausting me – I’m not sure how long I can do it for
On what three levels does sustainability relate to healthcare?
Global sustainability
Sustainability of the NHS
Personal and Career Sustainability
Why is global sustainability important to healthcare?
Material inequality Population and consumption Resource depletion Climate change Loss of biodiversity Crisis in healthcare
How is material inequality important to global sustainability?
World’s wealthy are getting richer while at least half of the world’s population live on less than £1.30 per day
UN estimated in 1998 that the Millennium Goal of basic education for all could be attained by additional global investment in £3.8 billion, in 1998 in the USA £5 billion was spent on cosmetics
How is population and consumption important to global sustainability?
The world population is growing
In 2011 it was 7.9 billion, estimated to reach 9 billion by 2040
More people means the need for more space, energy, food and water
This is made worse by the fact that people in the developing world aspire to what the developed world has by way of material goods and food
How is resource depletion important to global sustainability?
By 2005 it was estimated that we had consumed half of the earth’s extricable reserves of oil and gas and that they are likely to be completely depleted by the end of the 21st century
Water is also becoming more scarce
We will be more dependent on alternative sources of energy in the future
How is climate change important to global sustainability?
Evidence from climate science is now strongly indicative that the world is getting warmer and that it is largely being caused by humans
We have increased CO2 in the atmosphere and increased greenhouse gases
Produced the greenhouse effect by a change in the gas concentrations - impacts on food production due to regional floods and droughts
Changes in the environment re incidence of infectious diseases e.g. risk of malaria
Deaths from heatwaves and droughts leads to changes in human migration from affected areas
Climate change will affect all countries but will have greatest impact on those who have the least access to the world’s resources and who have contributed least to carbon emissions
How is loss of biodiversity important to global sustainability?
Increased rate of animal extinction due to depletion of areas of habitat
How is crisis in healthcare important to global sustainability?
Crisin in chronic health problems with increasing ageing population, increase in chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity
Crisis in cost of healthcare in developed countries, getting increasingly worse
No evidence that spending more money on healthcare actually improves health
Crisis in healthcare use of energy e.g. 3% of carbon footprint in England is due to NHS-related activity
What has been the change in the number of reported weather-related natural disasters since the 1960s?
Globally, the number of reported weather-related natural disasters has more than tripled since the 1960s
How many deaths every year do weather-related natural disasters result in?
Over 60,000 deaths, many in developing countries
What does the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) state in relation to evidence for global warming?
State that evidence for global warming is unequivocal and there is very high confidence that the increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is due to human activity
In the last 150 years, how many of the warmest years on record have occurred in the last 13 years?
12
How many excess deaths were recorded in the heat wave of summer of 2003 in Europe?
More than 70,000 excess deaths
How does high temperature exacerbate cardiovascular and respiratory disease?
High temperatures also raise the levels of ozone and other pollutants in the air that can exacerbate cardiovascular and respiratory disease
What percentage of the world’s total carbon footprint is accounted for by the poorest one billion people?
Around 3% of world’s total footprint
The loss of health life years as a results of global environmental change is predicted to be how many times greater amongst poor African populations than amongst European populations?
500 times greater
By the end of the century, how many of the world’s population could face severe food shortages?
Half of the world’s population
What could increase food insecurity greatly within the next 2 decades?
Declining crop yields
What number of the world’s population live within 60 miles of a shoreline?
1/3
