R. CARRILLO SALOMÓN
D. ZAYAS HERNÁNDEZ
CUBA

Facing the unquestionable changes that operate in the world, especially those related to the environment, and their effect on the different biological species, mainly on the health of the same; as well as the well known difference, existing between the socioeconomic development and the life conditions of the inhabitants of the various peoples in the world, and the complex web within which the same develop and inter-relate their economies, this paper has, among other objects, to offer a compilation of fragments, taken from works of different authors, connected with some facts with which the mankind was confronted, on the threshold of the 21st century. The paper reviews several approaches to the economic damage caused to the environment, and explains, according to hypothetical data, its effect, as related to the beekeeping.

From the debates of the Nobel-Prizewinners Conference, held in Paris, from 18 to 21 of January, 1988, we can draw the following conclusions(1):

• All life forms have to be considered as an essential form of mankind. Thus, changing the ecological balance is a crime against the future.
• The riches of mankind also reside in their diversity, which must be protected in all its facets, that is, cultural, biological, philosophical, and spiritual. With that aim in view, we must constantly emphasize the tolerancy, the capacity of listening to the other, as well as turning down the definitive truths.

In a study about the state of the fish resources, published by the FAO, in 1990, the greatest part of the species that are commercially fished in all the oceans of the world were classified into three different categories, that is, "reduced", "totally exploited", and "excessively exploited"(2).

As concerns the recourses of our planet:

• The 80% of the forest areas belongs to the States.
• The tropical forest covers only 7% of the area of Earth; nevertheless, it shelters more than half the known vegetable and animal species, from them 80% of the insects, and 90% of the primates.
• It is estimated that the tropical forest is diminished yearly by 11 to 15 million hectares, that is, an area larger than that of Australia.
• Half of the main produces, cultivated in the world, are originating in the tropical forest.
• Although at present there were studied the medicinal properties of less than 1% of the vegetable species, the 25% of the medicines that are currently used in the United States include substances extracted from the plants. Moreover, it is estimated that about 1,400 forest species could perform an anticancerous activity.
• The chemical menace related to the air pollution, as well as the acid rains jeopardize a large part of the forest.
• The atmosphere heating is one of the most severe menaces that bolts about the environment. The disafforestation is twice as harmful, as with the trees destruction not only the natural "captivators" of the carbon are wasted, but increases its proportion in the atmosphere.

Supposing the felling of trees would cease this very day, as by a miracle, there would be necessary to plant millions of hectares of trees, in order to cover the future needs of wood, and stabilizing the soil, as well as the water resources, and for answering the growing demand of paper, wood, and other industrial forest products. Even by sowing now millions of hectares of forest, it would be impossible to absorb all the tens of millions of tons of carbon dioxide, that are already accumulated in the atmosphere, and that are increasing day by day.

In 1983, the rich countries enjoyed a National Gross Product (NGP) of 10.5 billion dollars (i.e., $ 800 per month and per capita). The poor countries had only 2.6 billion dollars (i.e., 60 dollars per capita and per month)(4).

The cost of a bomber prototype, fully equipped, amounts to the equivalent of the wages paid to 250,000 teachers during a year, or of 30 faculties of sciences, each one for 1,000 students, or of 75 fully equipped hospitals, of 100 beds each(5).

The poorer nations have an infant death rate 8 times higher than that of the developed countries, and a life expectance inferior by a third(6).

A billion of individua – that is, the fourth part of the world population – literally lacks a home, or dwell in miserable lodgings, and in a unheathful environment(7).

Also a billion of individua suffer from parasitary illnesses(8).

Every day 40,000 children die in the world, for causes that in their majority could be avoided(9).

As concerns the causes of cancer in the United States, more than a third are imputed to the nourishment, 2% to the pollution, and 1% to the food additives and to the industrial products(10).

The so-called "Industrial civilization", that had many beneficent effects to the human condition, unfortunately can affect, when the economic criteria are prevailing, this precious entity that a few decades ago have been conscientiously taken into account, and that is called "environment"(11).

The relationship between the economic development and health is a complex problem, difficult to understand, but, nevertheless, there is the supposition, that an increase of the economic development must entail an increase in the level of health of the population. This leads to the thought that the health conditions in the industrialized countries are, generally, better than in the non-industrialized ones(13).

However, the adjustment policy, promoted by the world banks and the International Monetary Fund(14), on the basis of the market ideology, causes an increase in the impairment of the economic and social condition of the indebted countries; the turning away of the government resources from the military to the social field, has the object of rectifying the situation, however the prognostic in the long run remains uncertain.

The technical-scientific revolution, the development and the implementation of new technologies into all the socioeconomic life spheres of any country, are factors able of leading to raising the health level of the population, the life quality, and the life expectancy of its citizens. On the other hand, an indiscriminate and irrational use of such means, could lead to destroying the planet.

The damage to the environment implicity brings not only changes in its "health condition", but also at least a foursome price, that would be impossible to pay: the "biological price", entailed by the diminution or disappearance of different species; the "ecological price", by the disbalance produced in the different ecosystems; the "scientific-technic price", by the disappearance of the inexhaustible source of wisdom and beauty that is offered to us by nature; and the "economic price", by the impredictable consequences to the economic development of peoples and their well-being. If our natural surroundings disappear, man shall disappear with them.

When disappear or diminish the number of adult specimens of a determined plant species, we are incurring to the "biological price". If we jointly with felling of trees, would sow ten specimens of the same species for every cut off tree, no matter how much effort we’d do, those would never replace the biological functions of the cut off one; they cannot give us the fruits, nor the shadow, nor anything like the oxygen volume that the same gave to the atmosphere.

The disappeared plants have also influence on the ecological balance, an "ecological price" is incurred, the microclimate is altered, that existed in their shadow. Some insects and micro-organisms that depended on them, would have to "emigrate" or disappear; something very resembling would happen with other animals, which dwelled on their branches, or fed on their flowers or fruits, without adding the risk of the terrain eroding, among other consequences.

If the disappearance of these plants, as a result of the human activity, in its turn unchaining ecological changes, that could jeopardize the life of other plants and animals, and maybe, in the long run, the human life itself, carry on a "scientific price", if any of the links that compose the ecosystem would disappear, accompanied by the consequent loss of information, the "laws that govern its existance" would be lost forever, by cause of ignorance or disregard of the same. These consequences to the science, have also influence on the culture, by disappearance of the knowledge, that is buried together with the death of the species, thus representing a price hard to pay by the human society and the future generations.

In the end, this movement entails an "economic price", that materializes into the following consequences: disappearance of species, deterioration of the ecological balance, degradation of soils, and disbalance of the resources, that the indiscriminate use would surely bring in an implicit way, not to speak of the spiritual riches, that disappear with the death of surroundings.

Up to this point, 4 components were defined, of the "health condition" price of the environment.

The cost determination and the economic analysis apply to any field of science, technics, or society, where man, resources and time intervene, if a certain decision or more is to be valuated. The decision analysis (15, 16, 17, 18, 19) was approached, from the economic, psychological, and statistical points of view, as well as from those of the occupational health and the management. Several applications were developed during the last two decades. The process of the decision analysis implies constructing and developing a model, that contains all the uncertainties related to the issues of the model. The uncertainties are represented by probabilities, and the values are assigned to the positive or negative results, according to the decision made.

The calculus development, on the one hand, and the evolution of statistics, on the other, as well as the creation and introduction of economic-mathematic models, applied to the management, allowed developing theoretic instruments, that rendered possible simulate the behaviour of any process, that involved on the one hand variables, related to a given event, and on the other hand, a probability, associated to the event occurrence in that form; thus, it becomes possible to assign values to the variables and the expected results of the events, in function of the probabilities, associated to every event.

Let’s illustrate this exposition by a hypothetical example, applied to beekeeping.

In the above paragraphs we have stated that:

 

• in the tropical forests dwell 80% of the insects;
• every year, 11 to 15 million hectares of tropical forest are wasted (let’s assume it’s about 12 million, as an average);
• only 1% of the vegetable species have been studied;
• 25% of the human medicines contain matter, extracted from plants.

 

• of the 80% of the insects, some 800-900 species are bees;
• of the 12 million hectares of forest that are wasted, at least 1 million is worked by bees;
• of the existing bee species, 1% depend, for their existance, on the forests menaced by extinction;
• 1% of the plant species, worked by bees (i.e., 25,000 plants), were studied with medicinal purposes;
• the melliferous potential of the plants worked by bees, amounts to 0.02 tons per hectare, as an average;
• knowledge grows with time, according to an exponential distribution.

Starting from the above data, we can reach the following:

• The "biological price" to the bees can be 60 bee species/year. In other words, every year can disappear or run the risk of disappearing 60 bee species.
• The economic cost in tons of honey amounts to 12,000 tons.
• The "ecological price" would amount to 2,400-3,600 tons of honey products.
• The "scientific price" could be estimated in 6.02 new scientific knowledge (i.e., 2, 3, 5 and more new technologies), which are therefore wasted.

The present work admits more rigor and profoundness, if there are to be contemplated other variables, too, among them being the soil deterioration, increase of pests, and many other factors, which could enrich this quantitative analysis; this is, without overlooking the qualitative estimation, which, with no doubt, could complete and enrich its study.

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