Development, environment and health

Abstract

Abstract: Productive forces and capitalist production relationships have expanded worldly. This is seen in the accumulation of capital and industrialization in Asia and Latin America, which involves a process of urbanization, a fall of rural population and proletarianization of the work force. This accumulation of capital has produced an accumulation of carbon dioxide exceeding the bearable minimum for life sustainability. It also has an influence on wealth distribution; inequality which has remained stable over the last decades. The effects of this environmental damage and inequality have an impact on the population´s health. This work investigates about the dichotomy wealth - development which reflects the degree of inequality in contemporary societies and, on the other side, analyzes the effects of air and water pollution on human health. Descriptive and correlational study with cross sectional retrospective design. Results obtained show there is a strong association between growth and development. As wealth increases, the association rate decreases. Human development indicators show that, in developing countries, the most negative component is the inequality in wealth distribution. Growth and pollution are strongly associated by the use of fossil energy. The rate of change towards sustainable production systems in developed countries is very slow, whereas developing countries have become strong issuers of contaminating emissions. The business ethics ruling the system is still based on a rational and selfish being, dissociated from social aspects and the environment. There are exports of dirty industries from developed countries to developing ones. The group of underdeveloped countries makes evident some “apparently sustainable” conducts, since it uses biomass depredated from forests, doing away with sources of energy based on firewood and coal. Water polluting agents and the lack of sewerages systems are accountable for children mortality associated with diarrhea, malaria and others. The consequences on health are suffered by underdeveloped countries due to the lack of economic resources. Then we find developing countries, and in the last place developed countries which seem to minimally suffer the consequences of mortality in their population due to polluting agents.