Go out on the street and ask most people if they agree with preserving the environment, and many would answer with a philosophical yes. Take it a step further. Try putting together environmental protection with human disability and health, and many people have difficulty making the connection.

Catherine Boldt, a member of the official Canadian delegation came to this prestigious meeting of world leaders, environmentalists and media, to make the connection between these two issues more concrete. The reality is that there is a growing trend of people becoming disabled due to environment disasters.

"I believe this is why we are discussing the environment at this whole forum - to protect human health. There is a big connection since people with disabilities include people who became disabled through environment disasters. For example, in Rio (at the Earth Summit), there were people who were victims of Chernobyl describing the impact of that nuclear disaster on their lives and health, and that of their children," she says.

She cites that about 80 per cent of the estimated 55 million people worldwide living with disabilities are in the developing world. This reality makes them "more susceptible to gaining a second disability from the environment, poverty and displacement," Boldt believes.

In Southern Asia and parts of Africa, river blindness is a big threat. It is a bacteria-like virus in the water that causes blindness. Youth are particularly susceptible. "The status of blind people here in North America is very poor, but it is even more terrible in many developing countries," she explains, "Especially for young women who, when disabled, aren't able to have any kind of independent life."

Dr. Delouis Blakely, the Community Mayor of Harlem, agrees with Boldt's mission at the UN. "We need to look at the effects of environmental pollution... there are many problems if you live near sewage; then some worry about the water children play in that gives them rashes, and finally, air quality and pollution. We are even creating the problem of cancer and other diseases." Blakely, a mother of a "profoundly handicapped daughter" feels that a certain kind of consciousness and education about the environment is needed for the twentieth-first century.

But, Canadians need not look across the ocean or around the world to find examples of disabilities caused by environmental degradation. Lead and mercury poison in the water is a Canadian concern. As Karen Kraft Sloan, a North York, Ontario member of Parliament notes that air pollution is increasingly becoming a problem for many people, especially on hot and hazy days in the city. Adds Boldt, "Indigenous people of the north are particularly affected because of Acid rain polluting the fish they depend on."

Sloan supports the need for increased education and also Catherine Boldt's role on the delegation. "I really thought it was an excellent idea to have a person that represents persons with disabilities on our delegation," she said. "It's something I haven't personally thought about...it has helped me to be more directly link the environment and health."

Representing the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, Boldt sees herself as the lone voice representing the issues of peoples with disabilities and the environment. "There are millions of people with disabilities on earth and there is me trying to have a presence here," she says.