Climate Change and the Health of Nations
- ISBN-10
- 0190262958
- ISBN-13
- 9780190262952
- Category
- Climate and civilization
- Pages
- 400
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2017-02-06
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Authors
- Alistair Woodward, Anthony J. McMichael, Cameron Muir
Description
When we think of "climate change," we think of man-made global warming, caused by greenhouse gas emissions. But natural climate change has occurred throughout human history, and populations have had to adapt to the climate's vicissitudes. Anthony J. McMichael, a renowned epidemiologist and a pioneer in the field of how human health relates to climate change, is the ideal person to tell this story. Climate Change and the Health of Nations shows how the natural environment has vast direct and indirect repercussions for human health and welfare. McMichael takes us on a tour of human history through the lens of major transformations in climate. From the very beginning of our species some five million years ago, human biology has evolved in response to cooling temperatures, new food sources, and changing geography. As societies began to form, they too adapted in relation to their environments, most notably with the development of agriculture eleven thousand years ago. Agricultural civilization was a Faustian bargain, however: the prosperity and comfort that an agrarian society provides relies on the assumption that the environment will largely remain stable. Indeed, for agriculture to succeed, environmental conditions must be just right, which McMichael refers to as the "Goldilocks phenomenon." Global warming is disrupting this balance, just as other climate-related upheavals have tested human societies throughout history. As McMichael shows, the break-up of the Roman Empire, the bubonic Plague of Justinian, and the mysterious collapse of Mayan civilization all have roots in climate change. Why devote so much analysis to the past, when the daunting future of climate change is already here? Because the story of mankind�s previous survival in the face of an unpredictable and unstable climate, and of the terrible toll that climate change can take, could not be more important as we face the realities of a warming planet. This sweeping magnum opus is not only a rigorous, innovative, and fascinating exploration of how the climate affects the human condition, but also an urgent call to recognize our species' utter reliance on the earth as it is.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2017-01-05
- 400 pages
- Ebook
- Oxford University Press
-
- 2019-02-28
- 392 pages
- Paperback
- Oxford University Press, USA
Similar books
-
Here on Earth: An Argument for Hope
By Tim Fridtjof FlanneryHere on Earth, which draws its points of departure from Darwin and Wallace, Lovelock and Dawkins, is an extraordinary exploration of evolution and sustainability.
-
Now Or Never: Why We Need to Act Now to Achieve a Sustainable Future
By Tim Fridtjof FlanneryWhen The Weather Makers was first published, the book actually forced the John Howard government in Australia to change its environmental policy.
-
Now Or Never: Why We Need to Act Now to Achieve a Sustainable Future
By Tim Fridtjof FlanneryWhen The Weather Makers was first published, the book actually forced the John Howard government in Australia to change its environmental policy.
-
The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of Civilizations
By Eugene LindenA concise history of significant world events that occurred as a direct result of climate changes describes lost societies in Greenland, central America, and central Africa, in a cautionary account that evaluates the present world's ...
-
Water, Life and Civilisation: Climate, Environment and Society in the Jordan Valley
By Steven J. Mithen, Emily BlackThe volume provides a new approach and new methods that can be applied for exploring the relationships between climate, hydrology and human society in arid and semi-arid regions throughout the world.
-
Weather, Religion and Climate Change
By Sigurd BergmannOverall, this volume explores the notion that a new awareness of weather and its atmospheres can serve as a deep cultural and spiritual driving force that can overcome the limits of the Anthropocene and open a new path to the "Ecocene", the ...
-
A Year Without a Winter
By Dehlia HannahThis book brings together science fiction, history, visual art, and exploration to reframe the relationship among climate, crisis, and creation.
-
Climate Change (and How We'll Fix It)
By Alice HarmanPART 2: THE PROBLEMS Why aren't we fixing it? As you've no doubt gathered from the last few pages, climate change is a really big problem. But luckily, scientists have told us what action we need to take – so problem solved, right?
-
The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century
By James Howard KunstlerThe depletion of nonrenewable fossil fuels is about to radically change life much sooner than anticipated.
-
The Collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean: Climate Change and the Decline of the East, 950 1072
By Roni EllenblumDrawing on a wealth of textual and archaeological evidence, Ronnie Ellenblum explores the impact of climatic and ecological change across the eastern Mediterranean in this period, to offer a new perspective on why this was a turning point ...