The History of the evolution of Man and his environment started from the Agricultural age where most people tilled the land for crops in exchange for other valuables. This led man to the Industrial age where things were made a lot easier by the production of valuables. This era was marked with the quest for more knowledge and information which signified the information revolution which we are still experiencing presently. Generally, information drives the whole evolution process with greater potential to influence the industrial and agricultural revolution. It is more evident that life is in circles. From Agricultural to Industrial to Information revolution, we are poised to create outstanding future revolutions with information taking the lead.
This information seems intangible and irrelevant but to those who understand how it works, it can be a very powerful element. Adequate information causes the observed disparity between rich and the poor, as well as, between teachers and students. The essence of information is for it to be communicated to reach the people that can act on it. The train of information starts from production to communication and most importantly, to utilization of information. A distortion of the information train renders it ineffective.
Researchers report new information everyday about the various pollutants that damages Man`s health and his environment (Kampa and Castanas, 2008). For man to protect his health and environment he needs this information broken down to him via effective communication tools and then he can be fully equipped to protect himself and his environment. The proper communication of scientific results to the public is extremely important in the quest against pollution and its effect on Man and the environment. Many environmental pollution challenges leads to human health problems on the long term scale and a significant control of pollution can prevent future health cases (Schlatter, 1994). This can only be achieved if the common Man understands the consequences of his action. The same way scientific results are reported to the scientific community, standardization of the communication process to the public can be a major advancement in helping man to understand the impact of his actions on his health and environment.
Past events are important to elucidate the need of this communication. In the early 1990, Monsanto, one of the biggest chemical/biotechnology giants and producer of the world famous herbicide called round-up, commenced the production of genetic modified crop seeds (Dill et al. 2008). These crops were special because they were developed to be resistant to the round-up herbicide. This simplified work for the farmers and more food production was guaranteed. This was supposed to be an excellent innovation but several side effects have been reported about this innovation.
Genetic modified crops were not confirmed to be safe to human health at that time as its research was still in the birth stage (Brookes and Barfoot, 2005). In addition, the greater proportion of consumers of these crops did not have an idea about the new changes to their beloved food substances. In other words, they were not given to opportunity of choice to decide if they wanted it or not. Their right to buy and eat what they wanted was violated. They did not have the scientific knowledge to make this big decision, but they had the common human intuition. Presently, this violation of human right is gaining attention with the GMO labeling of food products.
On the other hand, for the environment case study, most people have a lackadaisical attitude towards the happenings in the North Sea or the polar ice on the Atlantic Ocean. Humans tend to fulfill the requirements for their healthy living more than caring for their immediate environment. This occurs because they do not understand that a clean environment provides a basis for healthy living. Impact of environmental disasters would have been avoided or limited, if the public understands the danger that can result from such disasters.
For instance, in a small oloibiri village in Southern Nigeria, where oil is extracted. Spills occur in this area frequently, which pollutes the domestic water and soil of the community (Nwilo and Badejo, 2006). The problem here is not the oil spill as this would have been avoided as much as possible, but the ignorance of the people living in the community is the challenge. This ignorance is most times purposely driven by the insincerity of the oil companies which defies the human right of information. Furthermore, The Vietnam dioxin tragedy could have been surmounted if the people were informed about the effects of the chemical weapons that were used during the war. This same information conception would have reduced human health effects for the Yusho illness in Taiwan and Japan and several other environmental impacts on human health.
The damage caused by environmental pollution begins with unwanted chemical reactions in the environment precursors, followed by direct/indirect toxicity to lower organisms and finally impact on human health. This can take several routes and it depends on the nature of pollutant and the environment. Organism protection has been a means of solving pollution problems, however many people do not seem concerned if a bee or frog is dying somewhere. More pollution is bound to arise from this unconcerned attitude because only few people understand how the distortion of an ecosystem can lead to greater problems. It is necessary for people to be adequately informed that these small organisms are part of the ecosystem that provides food or cleans up the environment.
Climate change is another sensitive issue that requires effective information communication. This is supposed to be talked about in the news like the terrorism menace in the World presently. People need to understand how joining a bus or taking a walk helps to preserve the world; how unnecessary revving of the car engine releases more unwanted gases and how bicycles can help reduce the effect of climate change.
In all, environmental protection can be best practiced with a large proportion of the people having information on 
the likely negative impacts. The scientific research community needs to rise up to its responsibility of creating real time solutions. Research findings will be more beneficial if it can move out of the corridor of Universities and the scientific population.
It is high time every student, researcher and professor put in more work to ensure their findings can be further utilized by the common Man. This requires a conscious action that can be kick-started through these means:
1) Creating environmentally social blog content since a large proportion of people spend their time on internet.
2) Effectively utilizing the paper media such as newspapers and magazines to report human sensitive environmental issues.
3) Enhancing the visibility of socially relevant environmental news on the television and radio media by making them highlights of the news.
4) Development of a standardized way of reporting scientific findings to the common man.
5) Proper education of the public by including basic environmental studies in school curriculum.
6) Ensuring environmental companies and organizations have a public relation unit that can convey human sensitive issues to the community.
7) Development and enforcement of favourable government policies that will ensure the human right to know is not violated.
The right to know about environmental issues can be instigated from the end of the common man, only if the scientific community rises up to this task of effective information communication and then Man can demand for his right from the government accordingly. What profits an information rich research paper that cannot be accessed by the common Man? Nothing.
Written by Fola-Eclipse
