Ecosystem Health最新文献

ABSTRACT

Human society depends on services performed by natural systems. These ecological services include maintaining the atmospheric gas balance and producing food, fiber, and other building materials. Efforts must be made to protect the delivery of ecosystem services because they are essential to the sustainable use of the planet. The best way to encourage policy that protects ecosystem services is to make the linkages between ecosystem services and human quality-of-life easy to understand for any citizen.

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the logical interrelations between four properties that may be useful in understanding different aspects of sustainability and making it a more operational and useful concept. These properties are system stability, continuation, longevity, and health (integrity). The principal findings are as follows: (1) Stability is necessary but not sufficient for sustainability, continuation, longevity, and health. (2) Continuation is (a) sufficient but not necessary for sustainability, stability, and health and (b) both sufficient and necessary for longevity. (3) Longevity is (a) sufficient and necessary for sustainability and continuation and (b) sufficient but not necessary for stability and health. (4) Health is (a) necessary but not sufficient for sustainability, continuation, and longevity and (b) sufficient but not necessary for stability. (5) Sustainability itself is (a) sufficient but not necessary for stability and health; (b) necessary but not sufficient for continuation; and (c) both sufficient and necessary for longevity. These logical interrelations indicate that sustainability is not a simple concept but is related to others, some of which may provide useful measures for different applications. It seems important to explore formally the many dimensions of sustainability to build a precise concept for scientific use. The four attributes investigated here do not exhaust the possibilities.

ABSTRACT

The need to transcend disciplinary boundaries in the teaching of environmental studies has become increasingly obvious. It has been particularly recognized that the relationship between environmental factors and human health needs to be taught much more broadly at universities. An international collaborative effort was begun to develop a course to teach core knowledge in environmental health to health professionals as well as others from a wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds. The course utilizes interactive learning methods and takes a holistic approach to the subject matter, linking the macro socioeconomic issues with the physical, chemical, biological, mechanical, and psychological hazards, as well as with the human health effects. It also aims to build skills in risk assessment, management, and communication. Several meetings (with representatives from the World Health Organization, the United National Environment Programme, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation, and the Council of Rectors of European Universities), a survey completed by 120 universities, a 3-day workshop (with teachers from across the globe), and three 2-week train-the-trainer courses (one in the Baltic, one in the Danube region, and one in South Africa) led to the conclusion that interdisciplinary, interactive teaching materials were highly desired, feasible to develop through international collaboration, and conducive to conveying the basic principles and methodologies needed to address environmental health problems.