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Challenges For A Changing Climate
19th International Conference on Health and Environment: Global Partners for Global Solutions
Summer-Fall 2010,
vol. XXII No.2,3
Education brings choices.Choices bring power.World Ecology Report is printed on recycled paper.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Challenges for aChanging Climate
Ms. Tania V. Raguz Dr. Christine K. Durbak H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moonH.E. Mr. Yuriy A. Sergeyev Ms. Irena ZubcevicDr. Emily K. ShumanMr. Werner Obermeyer Mr. Kurt DahlinMr. Glenn Wiser Mr. Ryan M. Powers
NUCLEAR ENERGY UPDATE:
Chornobyl Review
H.E. Mr. Valeriy Kuchinsky H. E. Mr. Mykhajlo BolotskyhMr. Denis Zdorov Dr. Hanna Kapustyan
PANEL DISCUSSION:
Nuclear Energy, Media,and Activism: Shapingthe Opinion of Youth,Government, and Society
Ms. Jessica WilliamsonProf. Karl GrossmanMr. Remy Chevalier Ms. Bahar Shahpar
LUNCHEON SPEAKER:
The Climate We Deserve
Mr. Jay Walker, CEO, Walker Digital
2 2 45 7 7 10111315 16 16 16 17 19 21 21 22 28
United Nations Headquarters, April 22, 2010
Child Health and Social Development: Combating Water Contamination in Rural African VillagesH.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon
Message to 19th Conference
The Climate We Deserve
Guest Speaker - Mr. Jay Walker
spec ia l Issue
page 12
page 4page 28
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Dr. Christine K. Durbak
Founder and Chair of WIT
Opening Statement
Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Col-leagues, Students and Ladies and Gentlemen, On be-hal o World Inormation Transer, I would like to givethanks to the Government o Ukraine or their contin-ued co-sponsorship o our Conerences since 1992, theGovernment o Azerbaijan and the Mission o Belarusor their support o our 19th Conerence.Today’s theme examines how we conront challenges– a topic each one o us knows rom personal experi-ence. Daily lie, in act, consists o a range o challenges,and our eelings o strength or weakness come, in part,rom our success in handling the obstacles we conront.The impending climate change and the ramications o chemicals and pesticides, particularly on children willtest all o us in dierent ways. The manner in which weace and cope with these challenges will aect the way weand you will live in the orthcoming years.
MORNING SESSION - Mrs. Irena Zubcevic, Ms. Tania Valerie Raguz, H.E. Mr. Yuriy A. Sergeyev,Dr. Christine K. Durbak, Dr. Emily K. Shuman, Mr. Kurt Dahlin, Mr. Glenn Wiser.
Ms. Tania Valerie Raguz
UN-CSD 18 Vice-Chair, EasternEuropean States, Mission of Croatiato the United Nations
Moderator introduction
This year’s theme is “Challenges or a Changing Cli-mate”. I have been given the great pleasure to be yourmoderator or the morning session. I have had the op-portunity to work with the World Inormation Transerthrough my dealings with the Commission on Sustain-able Development here at the United Nations where Ihave been a member on the bureau both last year andthis year representing the group o Eastern Europe-an States. Beore I hand over the foor to the openingspeaker or this morning, I just want to run through thismorning’s programme so that you are well aware what we are going to be discussing.It would give me great pleasure to introduce Dr.Christine Durbak, the Chair and CEO o World Inor-mation Transer. And then Dr. Durbak will be ollowedby his excellency Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev who is thepermanent representative o Ukraine to the United Na-tions and had been an active participant in this series o conerences. It’s nice to see you back again Excellency.Then I will turn the microphone over to my dear col-league, Irena Zubcevic, who is the senior sustainable de- velopment ocer rom the United Nations Departmentor economic and social aairs and rom the secretariator sustainable development.For the Keynote address we would like to welcome this year, Dr. Emily Shuman, who will be dealing with ‘Glob-al Climate Change and Children’s Health’ and then we will listen to Werner Obermeyer rom the World HealthOrganization. Ater that presentation, we will watch alm screening entitled ‘Silent Snow’ which has been di-rected by Jan van den Berg. Then Glenn Wiser, senior Attorney or the Centre o International EnvironmentalLaw and Steering Committee, member o InternationalPOPs Elimination Network. Finally, we will have a pres-entation on ‘Children’s Health and Social Developmentcombating water contamination in Rural Arican Vil-lages who we will hear rom representative rom Water Wells or Arica, in particular ounder and presidentKurt Dahlin. With this I have the great pleasure to turnthe microphone to Dr. Durbak or her introductory and welcoming remarks.
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From our work over the last 23 years, we have con-cluded that the ear o change conuses the understand-ing o complex challenges and slows down progress to- ward solutions. When people are araid o somethingnew, they all back on superstition, old hatreds andunounded belies. Our current global stage can be ob-served rom that perspective: on the one hand are thosearaid o knowing the problems because that would re-quire them to do things dierently; on the other arethose who embrace the challenges because they want todo things dierently. The rst group embraces the statusquo, the second group embraces change. The most crea-tive minds are to be ound in the second group. They are willing to ace the inevitable change and thus conquertheir ear o change.However, there is also another category. Those whoseek a antasy lie without challenges or problems.Those that make assumptions and come to conclusions without science based evidence. Some in this categorychange historical acts by removing names or even actso history rom text books. Those are the ones that dis-regard the acts o reality, or example the act that thetemperature o the earth’s oceans has increased. Theycannot tell the dierence between evidence derivedrom scientic research and “evidence” derived rom adream. This group o individuals contributes the leastto nding solutions to the planet’s toughest challengesand adheres to regression by playing on people’s ear o change.Today we’ll be hearing rom scientists and expertson a ew very important issues. This morning we’lllearn that children ace hazards today that were neitherknown nor suspected a ew decades ago. They are atrisk o exposure to over 85,000 synthetic chemicals. Inthe USA they are most likely exposed to 15,000 highproduction volume (HPV) chemicals which are widelydispersed in oods, household products and pesticides.Less than hal o them have been tested or their po-tential human toxicity, particularly or children who areparticularly vulnerable to chemicals in the environmentbecause o their disproportionately heavy exposuresand their inherent biological susceptibility. Moreover,because their organs are still undergoing developmentand maturation during exposure to environmental pol-lutants, children are more likely to sustain injuries withlielong impacts. Among all the organs potentially injured when chil-dren are exposed to environmental toxicants, it is thecentral nervous system that is most vulnerable. Chil-dren develop the brain that will serve them or the
“When people are araid o something new, they all back on superstition, old hatreds and unounded belies - some change historical acts”
rest o their lives during the rst 6 years o lie. Con-sequently, exposure to environmental neurotoxicantsduring this period can produce permanent neurode- velopmental sequelae. Whereas the adult brain has anatural “barrier” to prevent many dangerous substancesrom entering the brain (so-called blood brain barrier),this barrier is underdeveloped in children resulting ingreater entry o drugs and neurotoxicants. This physi-ologic dierence between children and adults explains why children who are exposed to lead or mercury de- velop overt symptoms o permanent brain injury, atlower degrees o exposure than adults. According toestimates, as many as 17% o American children havea neurodevelopmental disorder and or autism and at-tention decit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) there isevidence that the incidence has risen more than 10 oldin the last ew decades. The progressive pollution o ourplanet indicates that the protection o children againstenvironmental toxins is a major challenge to modernsociety. We will also examine the issues o nuclear energy, theater eects o Chornobyl on the Ukrainian and ormerSoviet Union society and the importance o continuoustransparency o scientic ndings in order to resolve ormoderate some o the orthcoming issues o develop-ment. For the past 19 years we have dedicated a segmento our Conerence to the ramications o this manmadedisaster. As with natural disasters the survivors mourntheir losses as they clean up their environment. Theirminds are preoccupied with images o death and de-struction and some may exhibit what is known in psy-chiatry as “survivor’s guilt,” condemning themselves orhaving lived while others perished. Others develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).The impact o manmade disasters is much wider. Theanxiety o individuals and societies ollowing Chorno-byl lasted or many years. Even to this day people con-sider themselves contaminated with radiation and earcontinued birth deects. Humans are programmed tomourn their losses and changes in lie and mourningallows us to accept that loss or a change has occurred. Without mourning a traumatized society has a tendencyto remain earul, helpless and victimized, which conse-quently complicates the “survivors” guilt, PTSD and pre- vents them rom seeking change in their society.
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