Category: Key Issues

Non-organic cotton crops heavily use pesticides and fertilizers. These pollutants make their way into rivers and ground water, threatening fish, food and families and the water we use for drinking and food preparation. Ingestion of pesticides can cause nervous system ailments, cancer, even death, particularly among children. As it happens, dependence on ground water is more prevalent in cotton-producing and manufacturing countries such as Pakistan and China.

Organizations worldwide are lobbying to make textile production more sustainable and responsible. In China, for example, environmental NGOs such as Friends of Nature have exposed serial, high profile multinational polluters and provided public education on water pollution. Their colleagues at the Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs identify and publish maps of areas of extreme water pollution and evaluate the environmental performance of corporations in China. As consumers we need to learn about our favourite companies and brands’ labour and environmental practices and make responsible choices in supporting those that produce quality, durable products in socially and environmentally responsible ways. Otherwise, the mass-market fashion industry will continue to peddle trendy clothes and make us partners in crimes against the environment and public health.

Why should we care?

• Poisoning remains a daily reality among agricultural workers in developing countries, where up to 14% of all occupational injuries in the agricultural sector and 10% of all fatal injuries can be attributed to insecticides and herbicides.
• Pesticide use for cotton production has serious effects on wildlife. It has been estimated that pesticides sprayed in cotton fields kill at least 67 million birds in the U.S. each year.
• Pesticides often linger on clothes, and small amounts can be absorbed through skin contact.
• Cotton crops are volatile, particularly in ecosystems compromised by pollution. High costs are passed onto manufacturers and consumers.

Fast facts

• Textile dyeing is the second-largest polluter of water worldwide and the fashion industry produces 20% of the world’s wastewater.
• The textile industry is responsible for about 20% global water pollution (The World Bank, 2019). 
• The textile manufacturing sector in Bangladesh discharges an estimated 217 million cubic meters of polluted wastewater into the environment (CDP, 2020).
• Cotton production is responsible for 2.8% of the annual global water consumption. 73% of global cotton harvest comes from irrigated land. 
• Conventional cotton production depends on pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers that contaminate the surrounding water bodies. Cotton production accounts for 16% of all insecticides used worldwide (CDP, 2020). More pesticides are used in cotton production than any other crops.
• It can take more than 20,000 litres of water to produce a single T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Over 92 million tonnes of textiles are disposed of each year, much of which goes to landfill. Microfibers, dyes and other toxic substances remaining on dumped fabrics seep into and pollute ground water and surface water sources (CDP, 2020). Washing one kilogram of synthetic fabrics can release 640,000 to 1,500,000 microfibers, whose impact on human health and the environment are still unknown.

Water crises are caused by pollution, overuse, poor management, lack of infrastructure and climate change. Water pollution has reached even the most remote areas of the globe. Contaminants have been found in water from northern Canada to Antarctica.

Years of neglect and abuse have led to degraded water quality in lakes, streams and groundwater around the world. Aquatic ecosystems chronically have been treated as open sewers. Nutrient pollution, toxic contamination, acid rain and other stressors have damaged ecosystems. Without protection, the situation will continue to deteriorate, essential supplies of fresh water will be lost, wild species will disappear with their natural habitat, and human habitation will not be possible. 

A serious lack of water plagues much of the world’s population, and water scarcity is only expected to worsen. About one-fifth of the world’s people don’t have clean water to drink. Almost one-half do not have access to proper sanitation. Lack of access to safe drinking water has taken a terrible human toll. Contaminated water can transmit diseases such diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio. Over 250 million cases of water-related diseases occur each year and lead to the deaths of 5-10 million people.

Why should we conserve water?

• Canada is blessed with 7% of the world’s fresh water. Yet even in Canada, tens of thousands of people do not have access to safe drinking water.
• Contaminated water is not safe for drinking or for irrigating agriculture without expensive treatment.
• If the rate of withdrawal from the ground, lakes and streams exceeds the rate of natural recharge, water supplies will be inadequate or disappear.
• Overuse and pollution of aquifer system for agriculture, industry and urban uses can lead to significant environmental problems and the collapse of ecosystems.
• Serious water scarcity can force migration and regional conflicts, especially in geopolitically fragile areas.
• You can help with water crisis by conserving water, which not only protects ecosystems, but also saves expensive treatment of polluted water.

Fast facts

• By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas.
• In least developed countries, 22% of health care facilities have no water service, 21% lack sanitation service, and 22% are without waste management service.
• In 2019, 785 million people lack even a basic drinking-water service, including 144 million people who are dependent on surface water (WHO, 2019).
• About 450 million children live in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability.
• Over 2 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces.
• Contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause 485,000 diarrhoeal deaths each year.
• Every day over 700 children under five die from diarrhoea linked to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene (UNICEF,2021).
• More than 250 million cases of water-related diseases occur each year.
• 5-10 million people die each year of water-related diseases.
• Canadians use 150 times the amount of water per day required for personal survival.
• Over the last 100 years water consumption grew two times faster than world population and is expected to increase another 40% by 2025.
• Since 1950, global per capita water supplies have decreased by 58%.
• 60% of illnesses worldwide are water related.
• As much as 50% of the water in piped systems worldwide is lost to leakage.
• A low flow toilet can cut the amount of water you flush by more than two-thirds.
• Each year 12,000 tonnes of phosphorus and 304,000 tonnes of nitrogen are added to Canadian waters causing overgrowth of aquatic plants and killing many aquatic organisms.
• Nitrate contamination and bacteria affect 20-40% of rural wells in Canada.
• Each year in the United States around 34 billion litres of dangerous chemicals are released into the ground, much of it entering fresh water sources. 

Researchers classify racism into individual, institutional or systemic, and cultural or ideological categories. Individual racism consists of racist attitudes and overt behavior provoked by those attitudes. Institutional racism refers to policies, practices, and procedures that may promote, sustain, or entrench differential advantage or privilege for people of certain races. Systemic racism occurs when institutions working together create and sustain racial inequity. Cultural racism is the overarching form of racism, and it occurs when collective racist beliefs are embedded in the dominant culture.

Canada has a legacy of racism towards Indigenous People, African, Chinese, Japanese, South Asian, Jewish and Muslim Canadians. Indigenous People have experienced the most persistent and destructive racism. Between 1831 and 1996, more than 150,000 children from First Nations, Inuit and Metis Nation communities were taken from their homes and sent to residential schools as part of an organized campaign of religious and cultural conversion. Thousands of those children suffered physical and sexual abuse at residential schools; many of them never returned. The legacy of colonialism has relegated Indigenous People to among the poorest in Canada, and the income inequality between Indigenous People and the rest of Canadians persists with serious social, economic and health consequences.

Why should we protect biodiversity?

• First, racism is WRONG!
• A healthy society requires inclusiveness and fairness where everyone is treated equally despite the ethnicity, gender, age, religion, or any other factors.
• Racial attacks cause lingering impacts for victims, including depression, anxiety, lower self-esteem and poor health.
• All of us are equal members of human society and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
• Racism will only get worse if we choose to ignore it. On any given day any one of us can be a victim of discrimination if racism is allowed.

What We Can Do

• Be aware of your own prejudice or misunderstanding of other cultures. Be open to learn.
• Stand up and speak out. If you witness a racist incident, be an active intervener whenever it is safe for you to do so. If you are a victim, share your experience to raise awareness and action.
• Advocate your government to establish legislation against racism.
• Say no to hate messages on social media and misrepresentation of minority groups on media.

Fast facts

• In Canada, the most persistent and destructive racism is against Indigenous Peoples. 
• Racialized stereotypes are manifested and reinforced in media. For instance, common stereotypes associated with Indigenous People include alcohol and drug addiction, while Chinese people often are considered “model minority” as they work hard without challenge unfair social norms.
• First Nations women between 25 and 44 were five times more likely to die from violence compared to other women of the same age.
• Anti-Semitism has long been a problem in Canada. Hate crimes against Jews is the highest per-capita form of race-based violence reported in Canada. 
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, hate crimes targeting Chinese and Asian people upsurged in Canada and U.S.  For instance, hate crimes against Asian people in 2020 increased over 700% in Vancouver compared to 2019.
• Black people have long been victims of racial profiling in United States. The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 sparked the largest racial justice protests in United States since its Civil Rights Movement and spread across the globe. 
• Misinformation and hate message distributed on social media has made racism much worse. 

The gap between rich and poor keeps growing within and between countries. According to Oxfam, in 2016 the richest 1% held as much wealth as the rest of the world, and the richest 62 people had as much as the bottom 50% of the global population. In United States the share of wealth held by the richest top 1% increased from 30% in 1989 to 39% in 2016; by comparison, the share held by the bottom 90% fell from 33% to 23% (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2020). Almost one billion people lack enough to eat, and two billion suffer from disease caused by poor sanitation. When natural disasters and pandemic strike, or food prices rise, many more people go hungry, unsheltered or without health care or education. In the lives of people affected, poverty becomes an endless chain of disadvantage from generation to generation.

Today, we have the means for every person on earth to have sufficient food, housing, healthcare and education, but we need compassion and willingness to make that happen.

Why should we care?

• Every second someone dies of hunger.
• Poor people unable to improve their circumstances, are the most vulnerable to natural disasters, armed conflict, and political and economic oppression
• Millions of children die of malnutrition before their 5^th birthday.
• Compassion is not just a feeling. It brings responsibility to help others to live healthy and secure lives.
• Poverty, distress and dispossession not only destabilize peace and security in the area directly affected but worldwide.

Fast facts

• In 2015, 10% of the world’s population or 734 million people lived on less than $1.90 a day. 
• The COVID-19 pandemic may add 32 million people in Southern Asia and 26 million in sub-Saharan Africa in extreme poverty. 
• Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was estimated that 6% of the global population would still be living in extreme poverty in 2030. The pandemic likely will make that estimation greater.
• In 2016, 55% of the global population, about 4 billion people, did not have any form of social protection.
• In 2018, 8% of employed workers and their families worldwide lived in extreme poverty.
• More females and children live in extreme poverty than males. One out five children live in extreme poverty.
• 98% of the world’s undernourished people live in developing countries.
• 22,000 children die each day due to conditions of poverty.
• Three quarters of the world’s poorest people – 1.4 billion – live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihood. 
• In Canada, one in seven people live in poverty. 15% of people with disabilities live in poverty, and 59% of them are women. Indigenous Peoples are overrepresented among the homeless and impoverished in all urban centres in Canada.
• In Canada, one in five children (1.3 million) live in poverty. 40% of Indigenous children live in poverty, and 60% Indigenous children on reserves live in poverty.

Why should we care?

• We are what we eat.
• Buying local organic produce helps ensure access to healthy food growth for generations to come.
• Spending slightly more on healthier food provides better nutrition and avoids damage to health and environment. It also reduces medical costs.
• Growing local crop varieties and preserving and sharing heritage seeds are vital to a stable, healthy food supply. 
• Global food supply is under threat if we continue to use pesticides that kill pollinator insects.

Fast facts

• About 75% of food biodiversity has been lost in the 20^th century, and it continues at the rate of 2% every year.
• 80% of the world’s dietary energy is supplied by just 12 industrial crops.
• Of 16,000 apple varieties in North America, less than 3,500 remain commercially available.
• Corn and soybean are two of the crops most exposed to hazardous agricultural chemicals.
• In United States, 69% of all corn and 47% of all soybean seeds are purchased from just four major companies. Moreover, over 90% of US corn, soybeans and cotton are genetically modified.
• Pesticides contain about 107 active ingredients that cause cancer in animals or humans, and 83 of those are still in use today.
• More than 75% of the world’s food crops and 35% of global agricultural land require the help of pollinators such as bees, but bee populations and varieties are declining. Close to 35% of invertebrate pollinators, especially bees and butterflies, and around 17% of vertebrate pollinators, such as bats, face extinction globally (UN, 2021).
• In locations where bee populations have decreased drastically, whole orchards have to be pollinated by hand.

Why should we protect forests?

• If we want to keep breathing, we will take better care of our forests, a vital oxygen source. In addition, forests absorb CO₂ and other greenhouse gas, which helps keep climate change under control.
• Forests provide us food, shelter and many other services, such as maintaining clean water and preventing soil erosion.
• Forests are home to many animal species and plants, some of which are quickly disappearing such as caribou, orangutan and the yew tree used in cancer treatments.

Fast facts

• Forests cover 31% of total land area on the Earth while supporting 80% of terrestrial biodiversity.
• Around 50% of the world’s forests are now gone, with most of the loss occurring during the past 60 years.
• Forests provide homes, security and livelihoods for 60 millionIndigenous peoples.
• Annually, 36 million acres of natural forest are lost because of deforestation and degradation.
• Half of all timber harvesting is used for paper products.
• The world-wide magazine industry uses 17 million trees annually, and 95% of publishers still use virgin paper.
• About 10 million people worldwide, mainly in India and China, are involved in forest conservation and management activities.
• The boreal forest is the largest forest in the world. It wraps around Earth’s entire northern hemisphere and acts as the lungs of the planet, producing O₂ andinfluencing the world’s climate.
• Canada’s part of boreal forest is about 300 million hectares. It is the home for many of Canada’s iconic animals, such as caribou and grizzly bears and it also contains millions of lakes and rivers which are the world’s largest source of surface freshwater. 
• Logging, mining, oil and gas development are damaging Canada’s boreal forest. In Ontario alone, 44,000 migratory bird nests were lost in 2001 due to logging. At that rate, Canada’s boreal forest is losing more than 3,000 American-sized football fields EVERY DAY!
• Canada is the second largest exporter of wood products in the world, with lumber being the dominant product. 

Mining worldwide is growing to keep up with increasing prices and demands. It is predicted that global annual resource extraction will triple by 2050. Canada is a major player in the mining industry and yet does not have a national protocol to ensure Canadian companies abide by responsible standards for worker health and safety, environmental protection and corruption. 

Examples of damage caused by extractive industries are endless. Blasting the banks of the gold-bearing Amazon River has caused irreversible damage to trees, birds and animals. Contaminated tailings and discharges from the giant Ok Tedi gold mine in Papua New Guinea impacted around 50,000 people in 120 nearby villages. Fish in the rivers became inedible; the mining dump changed the riverbed causing disruptions in water flow.

Why should we care?

• Our addiction to precious metals for electronics and fossil fuels is exhausting soil, damaging forests, polluting water and forcing people to leave their homes.
• Mining projects in developing countries harm millions of residents and workers due to lack of safe working conditions and proper health care.
• Pollution from extractive industry waste is destroying plant and animal life.
• Efficient and responsible use of energy and other resources is crucial if we wish to enjoy a livable future and ensure one for our children and their children.

Fast facts

• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to light a 100-watt lightbulb for nearly a day.
• Cyanide, a highly toxic compound, is often used to separate gold from sediment and rock. Without proper management, cyanide spills are frequent, poisoning the surrounding ecosystem and deteriorating public health. Strict regulations are needed to hold mining companies accountable for incidents harmful to people and the environment.
• Every ounce of mined gold result in 79 tons of mining waste.
• Mining creates 96% of arsenic emissions which increases cancer risks for people working and living around the mining area.
• As a result of unsafe handling, more than 6 million tons of oil enters the ocean waters every year, killing millions of marine animals and birds. Land-based spills also do significant damage to water and wildlife.

Children are more likely than adults to perish during natural disasters and to succumb to malnutrition, injuries or disease in the aftermath. Over 96% of all recent disaster-related deaths worldwide occur in developing countries. Again, the poorest of the poor, in Africa, the Middle East and Asia are most heavily impacted.

Although some wealthy countries provide humanitarian aid to people affected by natural disasters, we must not allow this instability to become the norm.

Why should we care?

• Natural disasters affect all of us, even though people in privileged places are able to recover more quickly, the social and economic impacts are growing. For the poor, natural disasters are life threatening.
• Accesses to clean drinking water and food and adequate housing are human rights. Being aware of this helps us realize that we must aid those who are deprived of these rights.
• Unless we change human activities damaging the environment, there is no guarantee of a safe future for us or our children. 

Fast facts

• Most environmental refugees have migrated within their own countries and regions.
• The UN estimates that hazards resulting from the increasing intensity and frequency of extreme weather events cause more than 20 million people on average to leave their homes each year and move to other areas.
• In 2020, natural disasters displaced more than 30 million people within their countries, three times as many as armed conflicts did. 
• In 2019, climate-related hazards triggered about 24.9 million displacements in 140 countries. The number will climb to 200 million each year by 2050 without ambitious climate action and disaster risk reduction (UN, 2020).
• About 18 million people in coastal Bangladesh are threatened as the sea levels are rising. Many island nations will disappear. 
• In 2021, three million people in Northern Kenya are at risk of starvation due to a severe drought sweeping the region. Back in 2012, the region experienced one of the worst droughts in 60 years, and over 13 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and the Republic of South Sudan were left in desperate need of food, water and emergency healthcare. 
• In 2010, floods in Pakistan left over 20 million people homeless and swept away 2.2 million hectares of farmland. The intensity and frequency of these extreme weather events is growing. 

Why should we care?

• E-waste has become a global epidemic with serious consequences.
• Most of the e-waste is illegally shipped to developing countries. By producing more e-waste, we are supporting the practice.
• Certain elements of e-waste are extremely toxic and have devastating effects on humans handling it.
• The atmosphere, plants and animals are also victims of toxins and pollutants coming from e-waste. It also poisons soil and drinking water.
• The e-waste produced annually is worth over $62.5 billion, more than the GDP of most countries. There is 100 times more gold in a tonne of e-waste than in a tonne of gold ore (UN, 2019).
• We can help reduce e-waste by buying durable and repairable electronics, slowing down our pace of upgrading electronics chasing after fashion.

Fast facts

• The world produces 50 million tonnes of e-waste each year, weighing more than all of the commercial airliners ever made. Only 20% of that is properly recycled (UN, 2019).
• Approximately 80% of e-waste in the United States is exported to Asia.
• It is reported that 80% of all Asian children have elevated levels of lead in their systems, as a result of massive handling of e-waste without proper protective measures.
• About 300 million computers and one billion cell phones are produced each year, while the global pile of e-waste is expected to continue growing at the rate of 8% per year.
• Modern electronics contain up to 60 different elements – many valuable, some hazardous, and some both.
• Manufacturers must take greater responsibility for their products from cradle to grave.

The main threat to our ethnosphere is pressure to conform to modernity and the impacts of development on traditional cultures and their land. For one of many examples – Nigeria’s Ogoni people’s livelihoods are in danger, as the soils in their area are poisoned by waste from the petroleum industry.

But it is not all bad news. For example, the Sťáťimc culture in B.C. Canada is protected through establishment of heritage learning and tourist centers; linguists in universities around the world are collecting traditional stories and compiling dictionaries of indigenous languages. Indigenous people are preserving and re-learning their cultural practices and languages. 

It is in our power to support culture preservation and give endangered peoples a voice in formulating development policies which must respect their territorial and human rights

Why should we care?

• Being aware about other people’s cultures helps us understand and co-exist in respect with other ways of being in the world.
• Indigenous cultures carry invaluable knowledge about nature which, can benefits us and our planet. If lost, we might lose many secrets of sustainable living as well as traditions, languages and music.
• When a language disappears, we also lose memory of histories and cultures, resources and knowledge for combating environmental threats, while some people will lose their already weakened voices.
• Every voice deserves to be heard and considered. Everyone’s humanity should be respected regardless of how it may or may not meet modern expectations.

Transportation Fast Facts

• In total, roughly about 7,000 languages are spoken in the world today, but it is predicted that by the next century nearly half of them will disappear because native tongues are being abandoned in favor of dominant languages such as English, Spanish, Chinese and Hindi.
• Around 96% of the world’s languages are spoken by only 4% of the world’s population.
• In the Amazon region alone, over 90 tribes are thought to have disappeared during the 20^th century; thousands were wiped out by diseases brought in by western settlers.
• Awa people of Brazil’s Amazon Forest are currently one of the most threatened cultures in the world. With loggers destroying the forest, the Awa people are forced to leave their once harmonious home with nowhere to go.
• The culture of Yugur, an ethnic minority in northwest China, is on the verge of extinction. Out of 11,000 Yugur people, fewer than 100 (mostly seniors) maintain ethnic traditions while younger generations are seduced away by modern influences.
• To learn more about endangered languages, check UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger