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Millennium Development Goals
Goal #7:
Ensure Environmental Sustainability
by Laura Amendola
This summer in Columbus, OH, the General Convention of
the Episcopal Church named the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as the number one mission priority
for the next three years.
To learn more about the MDGs and the Episcopal Church’s commitment, go
to:
www.episcopalchurch.org/ONE
This is the
seventh installment in my eight-part series on the Millennium
Development Goals. Goal number seven is to Ensure Environmental
Sustainability. In particular, the targets for this goal are to
integrate the principals of sustainable development into country
policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources.
By 2015 cut in half the percentage of people living without sustainable
access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. And by 2020, achieve
a significant improvement in the lives of 100 million slum dwellers
Here are the facts regarding goal # 7
-
Globally, 2 million children die each year from infections spread through dirty water or lack of toilets.
-
1.2 billion People lack access to safe drinking water and 2.4 do not even have basic sanitation facilities.
-
Fisheries are collapsing in many places, which puts even more negative economic pressure on poor communities.
There are many
quotes that are very popular from the bible regarding feeding the hungry
and clothing the naked. However, we also have a Biblical commandment to
be stewards of creation. It is our responsibility to ensure a healthy
environment for the generations that follow us.
Goal #7 is unique for a few reasons to begin with when we do see
significant gains in the previous six goals we could be completely
undercut or reversed by environmental degradation. That makes goal #7 a
mandatory achievement. Goal #7 is also unique in that we can work
directly on it in our daily lives.
So what can
you do?
Give: if everyone (including our government) gave just 0.7% of
their gross income we could achieve the Millennium Development Goals.… A
suggestion for donations related to environmental sustainability could
be WaterAid (www.wateraid.org).
Offset your carbon footprint at: www.carbonfund.org
Learn: If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend Al Gore’s
movie 'An Inconvenient Truth'. I would also recommend checking out the
Diocesan Environmental Stewardship Commission’s website:
www.env-steward.com
Take the MN Energy Challenge! This is great assessment tool to figure
out how much energy you use and it has lots of suggestions for
improvements:
www.mnenergychallenge.org
Click: You can help preserve habitat and forest by clicking once
per day at:
www.therainforestsite.com and
www.ecologyfund.com
Read about the
other goals:
Goal #1: Eradicating Extreme Hunger and Poverty
Goal #2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
Goal #3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower
Women
Goal #4: Reduce Child Mortality
Goal #5: Improve
Maternal Health
Goal #6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other
diseases
Goal #7: Ensure
Environmental Sustainability
>Laura Amendola