Finding Sustainable Solutions to Protect the Environment and Public

In today's world, there are a variety of environmental challenges, from global warming to water pollution to deforestation that needs to be acknowledged and understood. Several challenges related to the environment tend to have an impact on the well-being of human beings and ecosystem health. Therefore, scientists and decision-makers in the fields of environmental and public health are working to address these challenges. To achieve sustainable solutions to protect the environment and public health, new scientific approaches and tools are however needed, and to make critical choices about the environment and its problems, it is essential to have adequate scientific, cultural, social, and economic knowledge since these problems are multi-objective.

The demands for energy have risen, and energy sources have changed with the passage of time, thus creating concerns about environmental and human health consequences. As technology is advancing, the agriculture and manufacturing sectors are also changing slowly and gradually. The focus of environmental preservation has shifted from local effects to global impacts of human activities on ecosystems and health, defined as 'wicked' problems resulting from these changes. Making decisions related to the environment can be a wicked problem, which means that there is an imposition of values on human beings regardless of whether they are acknowledged or not. These problems include policies regarding climate change, developing a long-term strategy, and choosing between various policies related to ozone control. Despite their prevalence at many spatial scales, wicked problems can have global implications and they unfold over long temporal scales. According to NRC, they are highly complex, complicated to describe. Lack a definitive result, and go beyond the comprehension of a single discipline or organization. As a result of these complicated interdependencies, attempting to fix one issue may result in additional issues. Therefore, the current environmental pollution problems are referred to as 'wicked' based on these definitions.

Climate Change and Energy Consumption

The global phenomenon that results in changes in average conditions, such as temperature and rainfall patterns, is referred to as climate change. In 2015, 195 countries signed the Paris climate agreement. This first-universal climate agreement brought several nations together in the fight against climate change and adaptation to its effects, with increased support for developing countries. In addition to adversely impacting the quality of air, and wildlife habitat, climate change has also negatively impacted infrastructure systems such as contaminated site control, waste management, and built environment functioning.

Due to climate change, there is a significant change in the distribution and severity of public health stressors such as temperature as well as diseases that are vector-borne. Additionally, it is causing air pollution to worsen in many urban settlements.

Additionally, one of the most important resources present on the surface of Earth is water. It covers more than seventy percent of the planet, but as a consequence of climate change and increased global warming, water availability, access, and even quality are threatened by climate change due to its profound effects on the environment. There has already been an impact of climate change on water access for people in many different parts of the world, as droughts and floods have become worse.

Energy is necessary for the system to survive. Production and consumption of fossil have historically had an impact on climate and the quality of air. This has resulted in emissions of natural and artificial air pollutants including carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxides, etc. Furthermore, it has also contributed to the emission of harmful greenhouse gases which not only impact the climate but also the health of human beings. As natural gas usage has grown, serious concerns about environmental and public health consequences have been raised about practices like hydraulic fracturing. The process of energy production can result in the contamination of water since water is essential for the production of energy. Since the global economy is driven by energy, so it is critical that smart decisions are made because what we do today in the energy sector will have a profound impact on the future of a greener economy. Moreover, since energy is very important to a healthy economy, new technologies for converting sunlight, wind, or geothermal energy into electricity have emerged that will play a fundamental role in transforming the way energy is produced.

The reduction in the number, and genetic diversity in a specific habitat, is referred to as loss of biodiversity or biological diversity. It guarantees the creation and maintenance of ecosystem services. These services may include soil formation, the productivity of agricultural systems, and storage and cycling of nutrients but as a result of changes in climate and land use, as well as human activities, there has been a disappearance of biological diversity. Besides affecting natural resources, loss of biological diversity also affects wildlife, green infrastructure, and the natural capital. Moreover, fires, storms, and the intense duration of droughts are some of the most significant impacts of climate change on biodiversity.

A community's well-being and health are inextricably linked to land use and development. Land use policies can affect the quality of life and the environment everywhere from towns to cities. To understand the links between public health, the environment, and society within a complex system; a comprehensive analysis of the interactions between factors, regardless of their scale (from a molecule to the biosphere), is essential. Land use decisions can set off a chain reaction that has negative consequences for the environment and the health of humans. Decisions regarding the use of, for example, can influence the risk of fire.

Conclusions

We should aim for more than just halting or slowing environmental degradation. We must raise our ambitions to restore nature and reverse the decline. Many individuals, particularly young people, demonstrate idealistic and committed qualities that give our society a sense of optimism. To restore the natural environment that sustains us, various environmental groups including the Wildlife Trusts, Greenpeace, and Friends of the Earth have contributed and taken some remarkable initiatives. We can shape our future with scientific tools, but only if we abide by the scientific method, test hypotheses, and retest them when new evidence emerges, as needed, and maintain strict adherence to empirical reasoning as well. Former scientists played a key role in the creation of perhaps one of the most successful environmental treaties in history, the Montreal Protocol, which is an international treaty that was designed to ban Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) and other substances that cause depletion of the ozone layer, hence playing a major role in preventing ozone-depleting.

From safe drinking water to energy choices, pest management to urban design, systemic thinking can help ensure environmental and public health protection. Our understanding of systems in the event of an emergency will enable us to assess the many elements of the situation, such as the environmental impact and the human health consequences, and the various solutions that may address the issue or have unintended effects.