Contributing to the Global Family

Posted on | December 14, 2007 | Comments Off on Contributing to the Global Family

Holiday season is a good time to reflect on how we can improve the environment

By Mike Magee, MD

As the Holiday Season arrives, we are inevitably drawn to each other, and to exploring how best to contribute to solutions, small and large, to the challenges of our global family. One participant in Health Commentary, Sherry Blum wrote:

Mr. Magee,
I noticed that you had a reference to unsafe water around the world in a recent newsletter and wanted to call your attention to this year’s annual Technology Awards, awards that are given for technology that benefits humanity. One of the tech laureate programs recognized this year (in November) was a safe drinking project focused on supplying clean water to children in Africa, Indonesia and Pakistan. Part of the Tech Awards function is to provide a venue where individuals, companies or other groups can find and support high quality grassroots social and economic development projects around the world by making donations to projects that match their giving criteria.

During this seasonal time of giving, it would be great if you could highlight this particular program in your newsletter.

Please feel free to contact me if you want further details. Thank for your consideration of this request. Also, thanks for the newsletter; it provides a refreshing view from my normal business-driven thoughts.

Here’s the link to the Safe Drinking Water Program

I agree with Sherry that science and technology are worthy of investment, support and promotion. Throughout history, problems that appeared too large to ever address have been resolved by breakthroughs in science and technology. In my own lifetime, I recall in the mid-20th century my father removing parts of patients’ stomachs to addresss the life threatening hemorrhage and infection associated with bleeding ulcers. Thanks to science, such procedures are largely a thing of the past. And as Sherry notes, the same potential can be leveraged to address other societal challenges such as water.

But it is also useful to remind everyone, that there are many things each of us can do right now. On our Healthy Waters site we’ve teamed up with the Duarte Group to make respect for our scarce water resources a part of you and your family’s New Year’s Resoultions. To see what you can do today, visit Healthy Waters.