Past team
GAHP Updates: Jan. 2017
We hope this update finds you well and looking forward to a healthy and Happy New Year!
Important Updates:
- As you know, the Commission Report is now with The Lancet undergoing peer-review. We are hoping for a publication date in April 2017.
- The Commission communications campaign will begin this Thursday, January 12, 2017, and continue through and after the publication of the report and release events in New York, London, Delhi and possibly Brussels and Mexico City. Please connect us to your organization’s communications director via email so we can coordinate participation in the following aspects of the media campaign.
- We are extremely pleased that the theme chosen for UNEA3, to be held in December 2017, will be pollution. Our many thanks to GAHP members and observers who provided input into the process. We look forward to continuing to provide input into UNEA3.
New and Noteworthy
- The Pollution Control Department of Thailand initiated a pollution prioritization workshop at their office on November 15th.
The purpose of the workshop was to explore in a preliminary manner the key exposures to the Thai people to pollution from air, water, soil and the workplace, and determine the severity of impact from a health perspective.
The intent of this process is to determine the most significant pollution issues, based on health impact, which can then be explored in more detail for future work.
Ten different agencies attended, including the Dept. of Health and several other Thai Government agencies, as well as UNDP and UNEP. The group will reconvene in Spring 2017 to discuss potential interventions/solutions for the top five to ten key pollution problems identified in November.
- The Government of Brazil is launching an effort in collaboration with Pure Earth, with a grant from Alcoa Foundation, to identify, assess and map toxic hotspots posing health threats to children and families. The project will help advance Brazil’s efforts to address its pollution problems. Learn more.
- Nature did a fantastic article on a Pure Earth e-waste project in Palestine/Israel.
Opportunities for Involvement
1. GEF7 Replenishment. The GEF7 Replenishment process will be starting soon. GAHP will be launching an outreach effort to GEF Council members to encourage them to broaden the Chemicals funding window to be more inclusive for all types of pollution. Join us in the outreach process! Contact rachael@pureearth.org to learn more.
2. Pollution Solution Info-Sessions. GAHP will be starting a new 30-minute online “info-session” series on GoToMeeting to bring practical pollution solutions to interested members. Technical solutions will be presented by experts from GAHP member and other agencies, followed by Q&A. Stay tuned for the schedule and topics! The presentations will be recorded so you won’t miss out if you cannot attend. Have a solution or pollution topic you’d like to share or learn more about? Contact Lucie at lucie@pureeearth.org.
3. Help us disseminate the results of the Commission Report! GAHP will be launching several communications and promotional events pre- and post-release of the Commission Report, and we need your help! Together we can make a big splash!
#TellYourPollutionStory with National Geographic
The campaign will start this Thursday with the launch of the National Geographic Your Shot Hashtag Challenge created specifically to support the work of the Commission. http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/tags/tellyourpollutionstory/# – The NatGeo team is asking people around the world to document how pollution is impacting their lives. The social media hashtag, used mainly on Instagram but also Twitter and Facebook, will be #TellYourPollutionStory.
Call For Crowd-Sourced Pollution Reporting via the Global Pollution Map – www.globalpollutionmap.org
We’ve developed an interactive map displaying the pollution GBD dataset, global air pollution and Pure Earth’s contaminated site dataset. Additional datasets will be added as funding becomes available. This website also includes a form for people to report a polluted site and upload their personal story and images. National Geographic will also be promoting the pollution map and the crowd-sourcing effort in a blog post about the campaign.
We are promoting this to our email lists and we ask that your organization spread the word as well. Please share the call to submit pollution stories on your website, social media channels, e-newsletters and your email list. We have no budget for any of this, so we are depending on our collective effort and existing networks to get the word out. We hope to have a strong collection of submissions at the report launch in April.
Sample Promotional Language For Crowd-Sourced Pollution Reporting And #TellYourPollutionStory
The Lancet is publishing a landmark report by the Global Commission on Pollution + Health this spring that will bring to light new evidence that pollution, in all its forms – air, water & soil – is the leading cause of death and disability in the world, taking 10 million lives every year. The majority of those deaths and disability, 92%, occur in low and middle-income countries.
These are startling numbers. And since the data is far from comprehensive, and missing from some countries, it is still an underestimation. To help comprehend this scope, and start highlighting the gaps in the data, the Commission is inviting all people affected by pollution, especially those living in low and middle-income countries, to submit stories describing the pollution issues in their communities. A crowd-sourced collection of stories, images and captions will help transform the data in the Commission report into the many visible facets of human life and health being harmed by pollution.
To participate, go to www.globalpollutionmap.org and click on Tell Your Pollution Story, fill out the form and upload your images.
While we prepare, if you haven’t already, please put your media/communications team in touch with Angela Bernhardt at angela@pureearth.org, so we can share our media toolkit and calendar when it is ready. Ask them to share their press lists, or to pass on messages to press contacts.
Want to feature a project or your organization in our newsletter? Have news you want to share? Want to subscribe or unsubscribe? Contact rachael@pureearth.org.
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