The human species faces a new threat to its health--perhaps to its
survival. Our burgeoning numbers, the spread of technology, and our
conspicuous consumption are overloading Earth's capacity to
replenish and repair itself. Taking a unique 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 current 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 analyze
only the environmental impact of these problems, McMichael takes
his analysis to an entirely new and disturbing extreme: he relates
each of these insidious processes back to its ultimate impact on
human health. He thoroughly considers these problems--and their
scientific uncertainties--within a broad evolutionary, biological,
social, and economic context. He also explores the underlying
problems contributing to environmental breakdown, especially the
relations between the world's rich and poor. This eloquent and
alarming book will be of intense 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. A. J. McMichael
is the chair of the Australian Government's Environmental Health
Committee and the co-author of The LS Factor: Lifestyle and Health
(Penguin, 1987).
General
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