Planetary overload : global environmental change and the health of the human species
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Planetary overload : global environmental change and the health of the human species
Cambridge University Press, 1995
Canto ed
- : hardback
- : paperback
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: hardback ISBN 9780521441384
Description
The human species faces many threats to its health - perhaps to its survival. Taking an interesting perspective, Planetary Overload forcefully points out the consequences to human health of ongoing degradation of Earth's ecosystems. In a broad-based, accessible analysis, A. J. McMichael examines ecological disruptions - land degradation, ozone depletion, temperature increases, and loss of genetic diversity through the extinction of species, among others - and compellingly demonstrates their potentially disastrous results, including food shortages, new and intensified disease patterns, rising seas, mass refugee problems, and cancers, blindness, and immune suppression from increased ultraviolet radiation. While other books on the subject analyse only the environmental impact of these problems, McMichael relates each of these insidious processes back to its ultimate impact on human health. He thoroughly considers these problems within a broad evolutionary, biological, social, and economic context, and also explores the underlying problems contributing to environmental breakdown, especially the relations between the world's rich and poor. This book will be of interest to environmentalists, public health professionals, policy makers, environmental studies and human ecology scholars, and anyone wishing a lucid, rational assessment of today's pressing ecological concerns.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1. First things
- 2. The ecological framework
- 3. The health of populations
- 4. System overload: ancient and modern
- 5. Population increase, poverty and health
- 6. Greenhouse warming and climate change
- 7. The thinning ozone layer
- 8. Soil and water: loaves and fishes
- 9. Biodiversity: forests, food and pharmaceuticals
- 10. The growth of cities
- 11. Impediments I: conceptual blocks
- 12. Impediments II: relationships
- 13. The way ahead
- Glossary
- Index.
- Volume
-
: paperback ISBN 9780521558716
Description
The human species faces a new kind of threat to its health - perhaps to its longer-term survival. Burgeoning numbers, consumption and the spread of technology are overloading Earth's capacity to replenish and repair itself. This eloquent and alarming book examines the likely impact on human health of the ongoing degradation of the planet's ecosystems. Where most studies of these phenomena have limited their analysis to the environmental consequences, A. J. McMichael brings a broader evolutionary, biological, social and economic perspective to bear on the ecological disruptions which threaten the wellbeing of our own species. 'A book to read now, for the twenty-first century.' The Lancet 'Everyone who is concerned about leaving a negative legacy to future generations should read this book.' Ecology
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. First things
- 2. The ecological framework
- 3. The health of populations
- 4. System overload: ancient and modern
- 5. Population increase, poverty and health
- 6. Greenhouse warming and climate change
- 7. The thinning ozone layer
- 8. Soil and water: loaves and fishes
- 9. Biodiversity: forests, food and pharmaceuticals
- 10. The growth of cities
- 11. Impediments 1: conceptual blocks
- 12. Impediments 2: relationships
- 13. The way ahead
- Glossary
- Index.
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