Patterson, Jennifer ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8254-7602 (2009) Natural health awareness: maintaining the health of the planet by maintaining optimum personal health (multimedia version). In: Villiers-Stuart, Poppy and Stibbe, Arran, (eds.) The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy: Skills for a Changing World. Green Books, Brighton, UK. ISBN 978-1900322607

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Abstract

As consumerism grows year on year, there are impacts not only on sustainability but also on human health. Economic structures push people away from physical activities such as walking, playing, gardening, singing and cleaning because they do not have an impact on economic growth or involve consumption. Instead consumers are offered an incredible range of labour saving devices from cars and artificial grass to powerful chemicals, which allow cleaning to occur without ‘moving a muscle’. Entertainment is delivered conveniently at the push of a button, and food supplied frozen in a plastic tray, allowing the sedentary consumer to simultaneously eat and be entertained. At the same time, however, buying into this sort of lifestyle leads to debt and stressful employment to repay the debt, often requiring sitting in front of a computer screen for long hours or repetitive movements on a production line. All this is terribly bad for health, but bad health itself supports even more industry and consumption as medical corporations supply products and services to keep people going, despite the inhuman conditions in which they live their lives. And conventional medicine itself has a strong negative environmental impact through all the machines, hospitals, medicines, instruments and products it depends on.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	[1] This is an additional chapter to the paperback edition of 'The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy: skills for a changing world'(published by Green Books, August 2009) and forms part of the multimedia version, edited by Poppy Villiers-Stuart and Arran Stibbe. Available online at http://www.sustainability-literacy.org/multimedia.html. [2] 'The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy: skills for a changing world' arises from a larger project, Soundings in Sustainability Literacy, which is funded by the Higher Education Academy Education for Sustainable Development Project and the University of Gloucestershire Centre for Active Learning. The project is undertaken in partnership with the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges, the United Nations Regional Centre of Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development (Severn Region), and the University of Brighton.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	natural health, awareness, planet, optimum personal health
Subjects:	L Education > L Education (General) R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Pre-2014 Departments:	School of Education School of Education > Department of Education & Community Studies
Related URLs:	Publisher
Last Modified:	30 Apr 2020 15:09
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/5633

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