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Rio+20

Don't forget health in sustainability talks

Nature volume 486, page 191 (2012)Cite this article

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Many wealthy nations are confronting the health and welfare implications of high unemployment, political instability and eroding social security. Such crises are part of our failure to move sustainability beyond rhetoric — a fact not adequately recognized by the Group of Eight (G8) community. The Rio+20 meeting in Brazil next week must accept that sustainable development and the health of populations depend on each other.

Peak global health may already be here. Low- and middle-income populations endure a double burden from communicable and non-communicable diseases, while health inequity and undernutrition persist. Social and ecological factors such as climate change, energy and food insecurity, counterfeit drugs, antimicrobial and insecticide resistance and poverty all undermine health in our interconnected world.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University, Australia

    Bianca Brijnath

  2. National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Australia

    Anthony J. McMichael & Colin D. Butler

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  1. Bianca Brijnath
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  2. Anthony J. McMichael
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  3. Colin D. Butler
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Correspondence to Bianca Brijnath.

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Brijnath, B., McMichael, A. & Butler, C. Don't forget health in sustainability talks. Nature 486, 191 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/486191a

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