Week 3: Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves

Environmental Racism

• Environmental racism refers to environmental policies, practices, or directives that disproportionately disadvantage individuals, groups, or communities (intentionally or unintentionally) based on race or colour (Bullard, 2002).

• Dr. Ingrid Waldron defines environmental racism as

  “the disproportionate location or siting of polluting industries in

  communities of colour, indigenous communities, Black communities

  and the working poor.”

CLIMATE ACTION SOLUTIONS:

1. Choosing a mode of transportation that is better for the climate.

2. Look into eating locally

3. Plant trees to shade houses and buildings

4. Buy Beauty Products Responsibly

5. Fly less, Fly economy

6. Cut down on plastics

7. Ditch the water bottle

8. Reduce trash when you travel

9. Eat your broccoli and pass on the meat

10. Having conversations with patients, family, friends about climate.

Indigenous Perspectives Of Land

• Namwayut- We are all one. “We are all connected

and connected to all of these things; the oceans,

the forests and the heavens.” Namwayut, 2022 by

Chief Robert Joseph)

• There is an ongoing relationship with the earth or

land and it provides teaching and knowledge.

Indigenous people describe this in how we name it:

Mother Earth, Father Sky, Grandmother Moon.

Indigenous Views of Land

• The land is our first teacher

• Water that cleansed us after birth

• Food that is gathered that feeds our community

• The land teaches us how to ‘be’ on the earth, to not give into greed

• The land heals us; we have gifts to offer the land

• We need to show others how to be ‘entangled’ with the land again.

Land Entanglement: Quantum Physics speaks of this ancient knowledge

• In understanding the reciprocal relationship, we have with the land, we must re-engage with nature, the earth and environment around us.

• Quantum Physics Theory of Entanglement demonstrates this relationship reality: Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon by which two or more objects share an unseen link bridging the space between them—a hypothetical pair of entangled dice, for instance, would always land matching numbers, even if they were rolled in different places simultaneously.

• However, that link is fragile, and it can be disrupted by any number of outside influences. For that reason, entanglement experiments on physical systems usually take place in highly controlled laboratory setups— entangling, say, a pair of isolated atoms cooled to nearly absolute zero.

Land Entanglement Theory:

Dr. Brian Rice

Our relationship with the land

needs to be cared for because it is

fragile. Our Society today doesn’t

lend itself to one growing their

relationship with the earth. Take

our food and medicine for

example; we don’t fish, hunt,

draw our water or herb-gather to

eat or create life-saving medicines.

The fish shows up at the grocery

store and we go to the pharmacy

for our medicine to heal our ills.

Indigenous Health Perspectives of

Balance

•The Medicine Wheel:

•Ancient Teachings of how

we are to live a balanced life

with the earth’s rhythms

being a guide:

•The Four Directions, The

four seasons, the four cycles

of life.

Land Entanglement cont’d

The Noble Harvest as a Foundational Principle

•“Never take more than you need”

•This is the main principle for any type of harvesting whether it be fish, plants, clams, trees or any living thing.

•If you take anything, remember to give an offering!

Indigenous Perspectives on Earth Stewardship: Responsible protesting

•Water Protectors

•Fish Farm opposition

•Oil & Gas industry solutions

Why the action solutions is important for the climate? 

• Lessens personal consumption, thus decreases waste from packaging 

• Creates less of a demand for the product, thus slowing down the production process (greenhouse gasses)

• Toxins in cosmetics become harmful to wildlife when washed down the drain (SPF)

What your plans are for integrating one of these climate action solutions in your daily life?

• Read and research for products that are sustainably sourced and produced

• Choose products that are able to be refilled with less packaging

• Choose products that have a zero waste initiative 

Provide evidence to support your climate action solution (PLEASE NOTE: You will need to search for statistical evidence to support your claims).

• Canadians produce around 3.2 million tonnes of plastic waste, and of that number, 2.8 million tonnes are sent to landfills instead of recycling. (Oceana, 2021)

• “Some companies, such as L’Oreal, have claimed that their packaging accounts for an average of 50% of their product’s environmental footprint.”(taylor, 2021)

“Why health equity is central to Planetary health in whatever discipline you work in?

It is central to Planetary health in all work disciplines because it works to reduce the health disparities between low-  and high- income populations while improving health status in all population groups. In all disciplines of planetary health, health equity is concerned and in most, must be achieved to be deemed successful. 

 “Why indigenous knowledge is integral to the health and sustainability of the planet? 

It’s integral because Indigenous knowledge has a special way of understanding and connecting with nature and wildlife that work to benefit, nurture, and uphold it for the future. It emphasizes that we are interconnected through our energies with nature and we should nurture the health of the planet like we do our own health. 

 Briefly your reflections about what was said about “stewardship for the land”.

• “Indigenous stewardship on traditional lands has supported the sustainable management of natural resources and harvests for centuries in many regions of the world. And in some regions, traditional management practices have been shown to be essential to the persistence of rare and endangered species.”

• Taking care of the land is important to protect species and to protect resources that are needed to survive. Working with indigenous communities is important to help protect these resources and species 

What is the definition of environmental racism?

Environmental racism: “Environmental racism, ecological racism, or ecological apartheid is a form of institutional racism leading to landfills, incinerators, and hazardous waste disposal being disproportionately placed in communities of color” (found on google)