Thank you Dev! Academy Award nominee Dev Patel has selected Pure Earth as his charity of choice for the Mandarin Oriental’s global “He’s a Fan/She’s a Fan” campaign. The hotel group will donate $10,000 to support our work in some of the world’s worst polluted places.
Dev, a member of Pure Earth’s Leadership Council, begun supporting our work when we were still known as Blacksmith Institute. In this Q&A, he explains why he decided that pollution was a key issue for him.
“… I believe that toxic pollution is an extremely underreported issue. Even I wasn’t aware of how big the problem was until a couple of years ago when I went on a research trip for a film project to Bhopal India. I witnessed first-hand the appalling conditions the poor families had to face every day… I was deeply moved by the struggles of these people and began to understand how industrial pollution in the soil and water can lead to birth defects, wide spread disease, high cancer rates, and low life expectancy.” — Q&A with Dev Patel
As Dev noted, pollution is an “extremely underreported issue.” But that is finally starting to change now that we’ve grabbed the world’s attention–reaching over 1.8 billion people and counting–with the release of the landmark report from The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health (an initiative of the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution, for which Pure Earth serves as Secretariat.)
As the report reveals:
- Pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and premature death in the world today.
- Pollution is responsible for three times more deaths than AIDS, TB and malaria combined, and 15 times as many deaths as war and other types of violence.
With Dev’s continued help, and the support of all our donors, we will beat pollution together. Thank you Dev and the Mandarin Oriental.
