eww, this makes me sick

The environment. It's not just for bleeding heart liberals anymore.

Since the nation-wide release of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth a few weeks ago, related stories have trickled into the media. The latest news discusses a WHO report on how a ravaged physical environment negatively affects human health world-wide.

Protecting the Environment, Protecting Our Health
(from worldchanging.com and the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment at UW-Madison)

We usually picture environmental protection as people protecting nature. But reality is that the environment also protects us. That's the take home point from a new report from the World Health Organization titled “Preventing Disease through Healthy Environments.” In places where they environment is stressed, people become less healthy. An unhealthy environment is responsible for one-quarter of the global disease burden and one-third of the burden among children.

The environmental disease burden is greatest in developing countries. On average, children in developing countries lost 8-times more healthy life years than their counterparts in developed countries from environmentally-related diseases. For some key diseases, the gap is far greater. The gap is especially big for infectious disease, with a 15-times greater risk in developing countries than developed ones. The design of cities and towns in the developed world, however, own set of problems. The environmental risk factor in the developed countries, for example, is 7-times greater for cardiovascular disease and 4-times greater for cancer.

Poor environment linked to one-third of childhood diseases
(From peopleandplanet.net)

Diseases with the largest absolute number of deaths annually from environmental factors that could be changed to reduce risk, are:

2.6 million deaths annually from cardiovascular diseases
1.7 million deaths annually from diarrhoeal diseases
1.5 million deaths annually from lower respiratory infections
1.4 million deaths annually from cancers
1.3 million deaths annually from chronic obstructive Pulmonary disease
470,000 deaths annually from road traffic crashes
400,000 deaths annually from unintentional injuries

WHO is calling on governments to work with sectors such as energy, transport, agriculture and industry to curb the most serious killers that cause millions of unnecessary deaths each year.

Contrary to popular lore, it isn't just developing countries and small children that are at risk due to environmental factors. The WHO report cites risk factors for cardiovascular disease and cancer as being higher for developed countries than developing ones.

Did you know that Wal-Mart has the largest work force in the country, and that Wal-Mart employees average higher rates of heart disease and diabetes than the national average? So, is it happy coincidence then that Wal-Mart is pushing a new initiative for its workforce, aimed at raising general health & environmental awareness among their staff. The initiative includes suggestions like eating healthier and using energy-efficient bulbs.

Maybe I'm pessimistic, or I loathe giving up one of my favorite punching bags, but there are a couple of things mentioned in this NYT article that disturb me. First, the new initiative is unpublicized. (WHY?) Second, to help them with this new direction, they've tapped former Sierra Club president (and once harshest of all critics of the Mart-of-Wal) Adam Werbach, as a consultant. According to the NYT article, he is also being pretty mum about the situation. WHY? Is it because his reputation as an environmentalist might be tarnished by a relationship with Wal-Mart? Is it because he's not really an environmentalist anymore? (His current firm, Act Now Productions leans more towards PR firm than environmental consulting firm.)

Nu Wexler, communications director for Wal-Mart Watch, a group critical of the retailer, said that Mr. Werbach "brings a huge amount of responsibility, and his reputation within the environmental movement will be on the line."

"Wal-Mart," he continued, "has the resources to hire every environmental activist who has ever criticized its business practices but we hope they will pursue substantive changes versus cosmetic improvements."

I like a good punching bag as much as the next person and will certainly be keeping an eye out for any changes at my local Super Center, but I would be thrilled if Wal-Mart followed through with even just a few of the ideas presented in this article.