World Health Day 2022: Protecting the Planet to Protect Our Health
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April 12, 2022
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Every year, April 7th is observed as World Health Day globally to raise awareness about ongoing health concerns. The first World Health Day was celebrated in 1950, as WHO’s primary health assembly noted the significance of raising awareness about the overall health and wellbeing of people worldwide.
Every year the leadership team of the World Health Organization decides on a particular health topic in accordance with the current global situation, to connect people across the world on the same ground. The theme for 2022 was ‘Our Planet. Our Health’.
Amid the ongoing pandemic and growing pollution of water, air, and food – are the governing bodies and economies disregarding the health of their people and ecosystem? This planet is our only home and we are not alone. 8 billion species live and thrive here. It’s the responsibility of every individual, and every community to have control over their health and create healthy surroundings so that our environment can sustain itself for ages.
As bitter as it may sound, it took a dreadful pandemic for most the people and administrations to comprehend how sick we have made our own home – our planet - through our selfish acts.
The greed for achieving something, the hunger to overpower everything being slaves to materialistic things, and thrashing the biggest wealth we have – the health of mother nature and our wellbeing.
In the almost two-year-long lockdown to curb the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus and its variants, most people have probably realized the value of our health, our family, and our planet.
How many of us throw trash around our homes? Litter workstation of our commercial place? Or drop the junk heedlessly within the place of worshipping? Even thinking about it must be jarring and worth blood-boiling. Right? Then why do most people go on and harm our beautiful environment? Because they don’t understand this simple statement – Our health is dependent on our planet, period.
Without further ado, here are some simple yet powerful tips to elevate your health along with keeping our planet healthy.
1. Exercise for the fitness of yourself and our planet’s
From smart toothbrushes to self-driving cars, in the 21st century, we are addicted to comfort and convenience, and luxury - ignoring how these hassle-free things are indirectly impacting our health. When you start a car engine and drive to your nearest supermarket instead of walking or taking a bike; you’re not only releasing a vast amount of carbon monoxide into the air within a span of few minutes but also blocking the chance of daily exercising which is much-needed for a human body for about 20-30 minutes. Do your body and our planet, a favour by choosing healthier options every day.
2. What’s on your plate, decides our planet’s health
The world, especially youths are having the fast-food fad. The increasing carbon footprints of the fast-food industry, its fuel consumption, its packaging and food waste, emissions of volatile organic compounds, and water contamination everything that’s involved in the world of fast food is extremely harmful to the climate.
Fast food on your plate can sooner or later lead to various health conditions and chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart attack, fatty liver, and some forms of cancer. Thus, it’s better to say goodbye to fast-food and diet-rich food by cooking healthy meals at home.
3. Early to bed, for Earth’s brighter tomorrow
Now you must be wondering what’s the connection between good sleep and saving our planet? First and foremost, not getting adequate sleep of 7-8 hours per night results in type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and depression. And when we’re not sleeping, most of us straight up head toward microwave ovens and start binging on more snacks to kill time which damages our digestive system. Secondly, here’s the thing - our lives are highly dependent on electricity. The more we are awake, the more we’ll keep the lights on, Television on, electronic devices on like computers and speakers. By sleeping early, we conserve natural resources which are overused to create more energy like coal and natural gases. If you’re an insomniac and want to alter your habit of staying up all night, we recommend routine practicing of healthy lifestyle.
4. Eat local, be vocal about changing climatic conditions
What if we tell you, that at least half the food you’ve consumed today, has increased the greenhouse gas emission on a larger scale? Imported food is shipped hundreds or thousands of miles to arrive at your doorstep. It’s called ‘Food miles’ in scientific terms. This transportation causes greater carbon emissions. By reducing food miles and choosing locally grown (Homegrown) food, we are alleviating the need of utilizing fossil fuels (Crude oil, natural gas, coal, etc.)
Moreover, locally grown food is often pesticide-free, offers improved nutritional value as it is certainly fresher than imported food, it enhances food safety as contamination risks are lesser when you eat locally. One incredible way of eating locally is growing your food organically. This is the first step for your health and greater for the environment.