Internationalization, education and technological innovation: three key factors to improve the quality of the environment and public health

The environment and the health of mankind are subject to strong pressures from pollutants. The ambition of a better quality of life is often frustrated by the increase in emissions as a result of the increasing consumption of resources and energy to satisfy the growth of the world's population and its expectations for socioeconomic development. At times, problems take on a planetary dimension, the best known example being greenhouse gas emission, with the resulting effects of climate change. Pollution highlights our failure to provide adequate education, which is essential if we are to become fully aware of problems and actively seek sustainable solutions. To this end, it is essential to set up an extended environmental and health education program in all communities that will accompany younger generations from the beginning of their education in order to make them conscious players in protecting the environment and their own health. The size of the problems requires that a joint effort be made at an international level in the political realm and in the scientific-cultural realm in order to share experiences and sensitivity and to seek joint solutions. It is necessary to assign an increasingly important role to scientific and technological innovation which, in the last century, from Marconi to Einstein to Fleming, to the most recent innovations in the fields of genomics and microchips, has allowed humanity to achieve a rate of growth of wellbeing never previously seen in its thousands of years of history. This innovation must rationally be entrusted with our expectations to provide a practical solution to the problems of pollution that threaten our everyday lives and the survival of the planet. This text discusses the types of progress most eagerly awaited in the fields of water supply, wastewater treatment, atmospheric pollution and waste disposal.

人类所处的环境与自身健康，正承受着污染物带来的严峻压力。人们对更高生活品质的追求，常因污染物排放增加而受挫；而排放增长的根源，是为满足全球人口增长与社会经济发展的预期，不断加剧的资源与能源消耗。部分环境问题甚至演变为全球性议题，其中最广为人知的当属温室气体排放及其引发的气候变化问题。污染问题暴露出我们在环境教育上的缺位——而充分认知环境问题、主动寻求可持续解决方案，恰恰有赖于完善的环境教育。为此，有必要在所有社区推广长效环境与健康教育项目，从青少年的启蒙教育阶段便植入相关内容，使其成为守护环境与自身健康的自觉参与者。此类问题的庞大规模，要求我们在国际层面开展政治与科学文化领域的协同合作，以分享经验、凝聚共识并寻求共同解决方案。与此同时，我们需要赋予科技创新愈发关键的地位：上一个世纪以来，从马可尼、爱因斯坦到弗莱明，再到基因组学与微芯片领域的最新突破，科技创新推动人类福祉实现了数千年历史上前所未有的增长。因此，我们理应将解决日常污染威胁与地球存续危机的合理期望，寄托于这类科技创新。本文探讨了供水、污水处理、大气污染与废弃物处理领域最受期待的技术进展方向。