Vision Of The Veterinarian About the Integral Sustainable Development of the Human Being Opinion & Comment / Technical Articles Posted by JimEdwards on Nov 20, 2007 - 03:04 PM (Honoring to the Pan-American Day of the Veterinarian, October 2) Juan Renjifo Llanos Former President of Veterinary Association of Bolivia. Honorary Member of PANVET. Santa Cruz-Bolivia E-mail: renjifo@cotas.com.bo [1] The veterinary profession in our community has a great responsibility to ensure the production of food of animal origin for human consumption, to preserve the veterinary public health and animal welfare, but should also look after the environment and identified fully with Sustainable Development. We are in agreement that the ideal paradigm of man today is its Comprehensive Sustainable Development, whose main component is the preservation and enhancement of its natural and social environment. The mayor problems of humanity in the twenty-first century are: the population explosion, the rapid environmental degradation, inversion of ethical values and the increase in poverty and unemployment. 1. The population explosion. In 2005 the population of the globe exceeded 6,500 million inhabitants. If we continue with the current pace reproductive, it is estimated that in the year 2050 we could reach 9,000 million inhabitants. In this case we need the value of the natural resources of two planets to sustain this population, which until then if the resources have not been exhausted. Today the demand on the natural world is bigger than the annual capacity of the earth to replenish everything from food to the energy and the recycling of human residues. The people convert the resources into residues to a major speed of that uses Nature to turn residues into resources… 2. The accelerated environmental degradation. Apart from the natural evolution of the planet and the steady expansion of the Universe as a whole, human activity is accelerating changes in the environment. Processes that usually occur in geological times for 40,000 years or more, are happening today in the course of a human life. Global warming, logging and the widespread burning of tropical rain forests, growth of the ozone hole, water pollution in rivers, lakes and oceans, air pollution, the accelerated loss of biodiversity, increasing the prevalence of tropical diseases, the threat of emerging diseases and a long list of events, realize the irresponsible attitude of a human being, causing an ecological crisis at the expense of all life on Earth… 3. Reversal of ethical values. Human society has triggered a crisis of moral principles, each arrogates the right to be always right in its own way, without taking into account that the right of one expires at the beginning of the right of others. The increasing trend towards domination of the strongest has increased the negative changes in human behavior to the point that it has lost respect for Nature. 4. The increase in poverty and unemployment. In today’s world, with a clear trend towards economic globalization, all models for the fight against poverty have failures. This is due to the lack of a global culture of solidarity, where the ethical principles prevail. Without solidarity it is hard to be fair; no equity is possible to apply it when distorts freedom. The real wealth of people is not accumulate goods, but to share equally among its inhabitants, consciously organized and fair. Faced with such a bleak picture for future generations, the veterinarian, with their knowledge of life sciences, environmental and economic is alerted and prepared to carry out conservation of the natural environment. We are conscious of the need to apply modern methods, which are ecologically and economically sustainable production of food of animal origin in quantity and quality sufficient to ensure food security, without to put in risk the public health or the balance of the ecosystems that can alter environment. Facing the increase of the urban pollution due to the bad hygienic habits of people and the increase of the contamination of the atmosphere in general due to the unconscious of the human being, we are forced to duplicate efforts to fulfill our mission, beginning from the formation in the classrooms, the continuous education and the professional exercise with ethics and suitability. Our profession is in agreement to the UN Milenium Objectives to fight against hunger and poverty, to the Objectives of the ANC in terms of defending and preserving the environment, and in particular in Bolivia, with the politics of the prefectures or departmental governments to promote Sustainable Development. We are part of the trilogy indivisible of all serious projects: Science, Economics and Political will. In this case it is incumbent science that generates knowledge. Preservation of the environment is everyone’s task, however, the veterinarian has a very special and direct involvement, is committed professional and morally with the community, whether rural or urban. Since it is a born educator forwards their knowledge to the community as a whole to improve its environmental education and health, to improve the quality of our life. Finally, from the standpoint of the total integration of the Universe, we are aware that the all the living beings have the same origin and destination in our planet which is also our home, and the ship in which we have been sailing in space during infinity millions of years. That’s why we should care for and respect the Earth. This article is from World Veterinary Association   http://worldvet.org/ The URL for this story is:   http://worldvet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3894 Links in this article   [1] renjifo@cotas.com.bo