Wealth Health… A Principle Challenge to Global Health: The Relentless Pursuit of Economic Growth Maureen McCue

1. Wealth Health… A Principle Challenge to Global Health: The Relentless Pursuit of Economic Growth Maureen McCue MD PhD Coordinator Iowa Chapter PSR Global Health Studies/Center for Human Rights University of Iowa

2. Unlimited Wealth: Increasingly Sick Global Population • Modern Economies disregard the rules & limits of Mother Earth … and the rights of many of earth’s inhabitants! • Wealth accrual is based on the destruction of irreplaceable, priceless natural & cultural treasures . . . here in the USA and around the planet— • Related Activities Make us all sick! – some more or faster than others! • On a single life support system, planet earth, what goes around comes around!

3. "We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. …this has been based on the even flimsier assumption that we could know with any certainty what was good even for us. We have fulfilled the danger of this by making our personal pride & greed the standard of our behavior toward the world-- to the incalculable disadvantage of the world & every living thing in it. …now, perhaps very close to too late, our great error has become clear. It is not only our own creativity--our own capacity for life--that is stifled by our arrogant assumption; the creation itself is stifled.” The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry

4. Pursuing Wealth at the Expense of Health Leaves Everyone Suffering Some Cases: #1 Wealthy Nicaraguan Man’s Security Guard fatally shoots daughter #2 US Pregnant Women Carry Chemical Cocktails their bodies1 #3 US Health Care Providers Carry Blood Chemical Load2 1 Woodruff et al. Environmental Health Perspectives Jan 14, 2011 2 Wilding et al. Hazardous Chemicals in Health Care. PSR Report

5. In Contrast, Today’s Health Messages: apolitical, uncontextualized, lack attention to privilege or underlying causes ill health Ex: The Traditional 10 Tips for Better Health • Don't smoke. If you can, stop. If you can't, cut down. • Follow a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables. • Keep physically active. • Manage stress by, for example, talking things through and making time to relax. • If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation. • Cover up in the sun; protect children from sunburn. • Practice safer sex. • Take up cancer-screening opportunities. • Be safe on the roads: follow the Highway Code. • Learn the First Aid ABCs: airways, breathing, circulation.

6. Actual Health Challenges Globally Transnational Corps Acquisition & Consumption • Extractive Industries, Transnational Corporations Promote: Unhealthy, Unsafe Products, Consumption based life styles Increasing Income Disparity • Climate Change Driven by Extractive Industries Fossil Fuels • Supported by Militarism Ignoring: Environmental & health impacts Justice & Human Rights Complicated By Social Determinants (race, religion, gender, ethnicity, etc) Extractive Industries Deteriorating Global Health Militarism Climate Change Violence &

7. Extractive Industries/TNCs“Economic Entities In Pursuit of Profit” • Promote Unsustainable over-consumption! • Know no boundaries, are unattached to any culture or community, & owe no loyalty to any individuals or government; • Set & follow their own operating rules re. environment, labor, & human rights • Drive Rising levels of Greenhouse Gases

8. Consumption Based Economies Based on Petroleum/Fossil Fuels • Warf & woof of modern life: virtually every manufactured product - vehicles, plastics, synthetics, processed goods • Involve Massive Environmental Pollution & Degradation • Threaten Climate & Global Stability/ Security

9. “Depression Skyrockets Amidst Growing Materialism”* Consumption-Based Lifestyle: • A very modern phenomenon • Associated w/ industrial revolution only • Not inherent to humanity! • Not necessarily even a value as ↑“stuff” is not related to ↑ happiness! i.e. • Doesn’t Even Work for Consumers! *Matthew Little, Epoch Times, Canada Apr 4, 08

10. Hidden Actors/Power Brokers Corporate Powerbrokers work beyond public eyes to privatize, deregulate, and create corporate market access—regardless of the interests, health or well-being of those impacted. Free Market Access & Values Assured by: • World Trade Organization (WTO) • International Monetary Fund (IMF) • International Financial Institutions • Corporate Dominated Mega Media • Militaries—Home and Abroad—National, Para-militaries, Contract Militaries

11. Hidden Actors: Militaries The current age of corporate globalization has been built on international ground rules that protect rights of property, contract, & investment. Thus, products, resources, industries, & finances move freely while people who move seeking improved, safer, healthier lives are criminalized.

12. Powerful Companies Sue Countries for interfering with their “right” to pollute! Exs:C. Am. Mining & Free Trade Agreements • Pacific Rim Mining, a Canadian company that transferred a subsidiary to Nevada to take advantage of CAFTA, is suing El Salvador for at least $77 million for the government’s decision to deny their application for gold extraction. • Commerce Group Corporation, based in Milwaukee, WI, is suing El Salvador for $100 million for cancelling its existing exploitation permit on the grounds of environmental devastation to the San Sebastian River.

13. Petroleum Sacrifice Zones • Shell & Nigeria • Texaco & Ecuador • Mississippi & Louisiana in Cancer Alley • BP & Gulf

14. Affirming the Right to HealthMitigating Environmental DegradationInvolves Many Critical Steps Address Structural Causes Ill Health Change Societal Values Develop, Promote New Economic Models

15. In Short, Change the System! • Poor Health Globally is linked to many forms of environmental & social destruction • Too many world leaders seek to address pollution & climate change using the same strategies of privatization & concentration of resources that have led us into these crises in the first place. • Social Reconstruction Required

16. Facing Peak Everything, We have No Choice! We, have to wean ourselves off fossil fuel, off oil. Off today’s: • Mining Practices, Oil & Gas extraction • Unsustainable Consumption • Industrial Scale, Exotic off-season Agriculture & Food consumption • Building, Trading, Shipping, Transportation & Waste of stuff!

17. Toward Solutions We have to do several things at once: • Learn to live w/out fossil fuels • Adapt to the end of economic growth • Support/stabilize the earth’s 7 billion people • Rebuild/rehabilitate our environment • Learn to Live within Nature’s Budget of Renewable Resources • Hold Corporations Accountable for damage

18. Toward Solutions: Many Ways to Leave Petroleum Where, When Possible, Avoid: Gasoline or kerosene for any reason Bottled water in plastic, plastic bags, plastic shower curtains Cosmetics, Nail Polish, Toiletries (non-natural) hand/body lotions, hairspray, many dyes Baby oil, petroleum jelly, plastic toys, crayons Synthetic rubber, latex pillows, latex bandages Many paints, acrylics, paint brushes, rollers Many mops, cleaning utensils, carpet cleaners, floor wax, silver polish, synthetic sponges Processed foods w/ artificial colors, flavors, preservatives; artificial sweetners, saccharin Fresh foods wrapped in plastic; non local, non seasonal foods Teflon, dishwasher detergent, cooking utensils not make of wood, glass, or metal Candles of paraffin wax Insecticides, herbicides, repellents Vinyl or synthetic flooring, many carpets Asphalt, plexiglass, fiberglass Man-made fibers: lycra, polyester, nylon, rayon, spandex; fabric softeners Disposable diapers, all other disposables, plastic plates and cutlery Meditation, Relaxation rather than Medications whenever possible

19. Toward Solutions: 50 Ways to Leave Crude(apologies to Paul Simon) Take the Carpool back, Jack Get Rid of the Van Stan You don’t need a new toy, Roy Or an SUV Hop on the Bus, Gus Or Ride your bike like the Dutch Just turn off the key, Lee And set us all free!

20. A few of many effective climate/health mitigation interventions possible!

21. Finding Direction • Think Community (in transition cities, intentional communities, co-housing developments) • Consider relocalization - building strong local communities to ↑resilience (economies & basic skills). • Plan for a post carbon future. Begin with resilience & self reliance. See: • http://www.youtube.com/user/justmultimedia?gl=IE&hl=en-GB • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ-J91SwP8w

22. Sustainable Healthy Living: A Potpourri of Simple First Steps • Buy less, share more, consider hidden costs! • Install • LED lighting when/where possible • Programmable Thermostats & Motion Detectors • Hang Laundry Out to Dry • Plant a Roof • Eat lower on the food chain! • Drive/live earth smart. Choose high efficiency vehicles & appliances or, leave your car at home-walk, bike, bus, and, turn off, unplug unused electrical devices • Get engaged with the political process—work for a clean energy & a sustainable future at home & abroad! • Question Authority!

23. Simple First Steps

24. Start to Dream: Big & Small “The only deserts that exist in this world are deserts of the imagination” Paolo Lugari. Designed to be self-sufficient, Las Gaviotas has produced innovative, cost-effective projects & made them available as viable alternatives for social & economic development in both rural & urban areas. “To make the transition toward a sustainable society it is imperative that we take responsibility for our own lives & meet our basic needs for food, shelter, energy, gainful employment, & supportive community.” The Tennessee Farm

25. Alternative Life Styles: Co-housing, Transition Towns Building a better healthier society, one neighborhood at a time! Co-housing residents are consciously committed to living as a community

26. Just Societies & A Healthy Planet: Key to Healthy People

27. Groups Working on Solutions Transitions, Climate & Health Rights • Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) • Climate Justice Action (CJA) • Via Campesina • 350.org • Jubilee South • Post Carbon Institute • Seventh Generation