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