Health is the state of being free of physical or psychological disease, illness or malfunction or simply the general condition of body and mind.

Environment refers to all that is external to human body. These components are the physical, chemical, biological, socio-economic and cultural factors of the environment individually and in combination affect human health and well-being.

The natural environment encompasses of living and non-living thing occurring naturally, meaning things that are not artificial. This environment encompasses the interaction of all living species, climate, weather and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity.

Since the earliest time, humans have needed to be sensitive to their surroundings to survive, which means that we have an innate awareness of our environment and seek out environments with certain qualities. Naturally humans seek an environment where they can have access to clean air, abundant water, sufficient food, safety and security.

With increasing population comes increase in the wants of man such land for cultivation, water, fuel etc. all resulting to overconsumption, overexploitation, pollution and deforestation. These anthropogenic or human activities cause environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, global warming and in turn affect human lives.

The effect of global warming can never be overemphasized. Increase in the temperature of the world’s climates creates increase extreme weather pattern leading to increase in heat stress on man, spread of new and emerging infectious diseases e.g. malaria, cholera. Also are the negative impacts on mental health discovered in the recent decades especially on the vulnerable populations.

The immediate and long term effect of air pollution are hard to ignore. Watery eyes, coughing and difficulty in breathing are acute and common practices, and eventually respiratory diseases. Exposure to high level of air pollution during has also been linked with miscarriages, premature birth, autism and asthma in children. Chemicals in water also have negative effect on our health causing water-borne diseases such typhoid, cholera, dysentery, jaundice etc.

Bioaccumulation which is the gradual accumulation of substances in an organism give a very high risk to human health throughout food chains i.e. the consumption of affected water, foods and animals. Bioaccumulation affects the entire world ecosystem from car emissions chemicals building up in birds and other animals to mercury building up in fish to pesticides building up in plants and small animals and so many others.

To conclude, it is imperative that at all times, environmental preservation, proper solid and liquid waste management, water conservation and safety practices, trees planting, green energy consumption for fuel and transportation must be ensured and practiced. 

To protect the environment is to protect our health. In the absence of good health is no good life.