Page 5 - Mar Apr 2021-REV

Rather than being the capstone of humanity’s million-year-long
progressive evolution and our most decisive step toward a better

life, the adoption of agriculture was in many ways a

catastrophe from which we have never recovered.

have benefited least from their use. It’s Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity cluding things like endocrine-disrupting
estimated that the 400-year slave trade and Ecosystem Services”, approximately chemicals and other novel chemicals that
led to 15-20 million deaths. The World one million species are facing extinction humans have produced and let loose into
Health Organization anticipates that cli- over the coming decades. And this is not the biosphere, although a specific bound-
mate change will lead to 9 million excess just what is to come. It is happening now. ary has yet to be defined. Each of these
deaths in the next 20 years alone with Since 1970, human activity has reduced boundaries interacts with the others in
the lion’s share being in Africa and Asia. the numbers of birds, mammals, reptiles, complex and often unexpected ways. The
Fossil fuels have allowed for the amphibians and fish with whom we share interactions alter the quality of the air we
production of food on a global scale the planet by over 50 percent. breathe, the quality and amount of water
never seen before. This caloric abundance Earth can no longer absorb our we drink, and the quality and amount of
paved the way for a human population wastes and we are using resources faster food we can produce. These, in turn, im-
explosion. than they can be replenished. This is driv- pact human health to a dramatic degree.
While human population growth re- ing biophysical change at levels never Additionally, human-induced climate
mained stable over the first 10,000 years before seen in human history. These change is also increasing our exposure to
of human civilization, it began rising in biophysical changes have caused us to emerging infectious diseases and weather
the 1700s, accelerating to nearly expo- leave the safe operating space for at least hazards such as heat waves, droughts,
nential growth in the 1900s up through 5 of the 9 planetary boundaries as defined floods, wildfires and tropical storms.
to the present day. by Johan Rockström from the Stockholm Despite paying these costs to feed
Starting in the 1900s, society ex- Resilience Centre and Will Steffen from humanity, the human population is largely
panded total and per capita food produc- the Australian National University. The malnourished. Nearly a billion people are
tion globally, keeping pace with demand. exceeded boundaries include climate undernourished, going hungry—while
As population grew, so did the crops change, biodiversity, land use changes, on the opposite end of the spectrum, we
and vice versa. This, and correspond- and nitrogen and phosphorus flows. It have the overfed with unhealthy diets
ing reductions in hunger, micronutrient is likely that we have also exceeded the leading to malnourishment and a growing
deficiencies, childhood mortality and in- safe operating space for novel entities, in-
creases in life expectancies globally, has continued on page 6
been viewed as one of the greatest public
health achievements in human history. Deaths by Climate Change
However, all of this has come at
significant cost to the health of the planet.
The impacts of people on our planet’s
natural systems cannot be underestimat-
ed. In addition to fossil fuel use, in order
to feed ourselves, we have converted 40
percent of the Earth’s land surface to ag-
riculture. To keep our crops irrigated we
use nearly half the accessible freshwater
on the planet. Approximately 90 percent
of the world’s fisheries are in permanent
decline from overfishing and exploita-
tion. More than 60 percent of the Earth’s
rivers have been dammed and roughly CC deaths/million
half of the world’s forests have been cut
down, and we are crowding out most of Estimates by WHO sub-region for 2000 (WHO World Health Report, 2002).
the other remaining life on our planet. Copyright WHO 2005. All rights reserved.
According to a comprehensive 2019 re-
port from the “Global Assessment of the MARCH/APRIL 2021 NE REPORT, P. 5