Dear Editor,
Two articles caught my eye this week: One was on Antimicrobial Resistance, AMR, (Andrew Gregory, 20th Jan 2022) and the second on Chemical Pollution (Damian Carrington, 18th Jan 2022, links below).
Yes, as described in the articles, these are massive problems and represent enormous threats to health. Here, what struct me was the final sentence in the AMR article: “Like Covid-19, we know what needs to be done to address AMR, but we must now come together with a sense of urgency and global solidarity” In the article on chemicals a similar sentiment was expressed: "There are growing calls for international action".
So let's draw that parallel with Covid-19: In the last two years we have mobilised massive resources of finance, man-power, ingenuity, manufacture, logistics, legislation ... and more to tackle Covid. The problems with chemicals, plastics, pesticides, antibiotic-resistance and related topics have been known for many decades but we have simply been kicking the can down the road because profits, convenience and numerous vested interests prefer to have it that way.
Even a simple comparison with the campaign against smoking lays bare our inaction on Chemicals and AMR: With cigarettes a whole machinery of prohibition, negative advertising and taxation has sprung into action which has dramatically reduced smoking. So why not do the same with Chemicals and AMR?
The answer is that we are simply lacking the will to do it. So, instead, we talk about "future urgency" or "future solidarity", knowing full-well that we will continue to invest in studying the problem ... but never actually fixing it.
No wonder the Doomsday Clock is ticking on towards midnight!
Regards
