Death
"Every year heat kills tens of thousands of people.
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Their breathing grows shallow, their heart rates
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flutter, their muscles spasm, and then they die."
Death rates from "greenhouse" pollution are
increasing and are expected to multiply.
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One death can result from the lifetime ​
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With global disasters, before 1965
“an annual death toll in the millions was common."
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Since 1965, there's been dramatic improvement.
Causes for the
"decline in death rates,” include:
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Environmental interventions
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Nutritional improvements
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Medicine & access to health care
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Education & standards of living
The reduction in famines has been
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a “'great ... triumph’.” How/Why?
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“increasing agricultural yields; ...
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sanitation; increased trade;
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reductions … in extreme poverty”
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“technological progress [and]
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the spread of stable democracies”
Last century saw 100 million war deaths.
​ Lately, there've been fewer violent fatalities.​​​
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“We may now live in the most peaceful
time in our species’ existence.”
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Why the increases in life expectancy? ​
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- Urbanization, women’s education,
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- Birth control, women’s employment,
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- Better infant health & obstetrics
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- Vaccinations, antibiotics
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The 21st century has been the:
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- most peaceful (see above)
- most healthy (see above)
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- most prosperous
- and most populous
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epoch in human history.
Will we repeat mistakes made almost 100 years ago?
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Can we stop creating the atmospheric conditions
for more droughts and floods,
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and therefore for more famine and fighting?
Modernization has delivered many benefits,
but we haven't been keeping up with the (ecological) payments!
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The longer we postpone a renewable transformation, the more traumatic the change will become.
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