Late Winter Viruses
"The present period of unprecedented ecological change and the growing economic and social crises that are driving vast movements of hosts are together contributing to the resurgence of old pests and the appearance of new ones. Important components in this rapid evolution are the vulnerabilities of ecosystems and the instabilities in climate."
-Paul Epstein - Emerging Diseases and Ecosystem Instability: New Threats to Public Health
We are seeing unprecedented climate change and environmental degradation as the corporate industrial economic model ramps up natural resource extraction and ignores associated waste pollution. Ask anyone age 60 and older about the environmental changes they have seen just in their lifetime. The pristine streams and oceans I played in as a child are now toxic and to be avoided. On the surface it appears the same as before, nothing looks different but the changes are on a micro and macro scale. This is not just about species extinction, which does occur naturally, but about short-term irreversible pollution of our Mother Earth.
Couple those massive changes with degradation of our food and drinking water, wholesale ingestion of pharmaceutical drugs, mass human migration across large geographic areas,and human caused climate change and we are presented with serious day to day health challenges. We can look no further than this winter's influenza outbreak that has resulted in numerous deaths and weaknesses.
"The present period of unprecedented ecological change and the growing economic and social crises that are driving vast movements of hosts are together contributing to the resurgence of old pests and the appearance of new ones. Important components in this rapid evolution are the vulnerabilities of ecosystems and the instabilities in climate."
-Paul Epstein - Emerging Diseases and Ecosystem Instability: New Threats to Public Health
We are seeing unprecedented climate change and environmental degradation as the corporate industrial economic model ramps up natural resource extraction and ignores associated waste pollution. Ask anyone age 60 and older about the environmental changes they have seen just in their lifetime. The pristine streams and oceans I played in as a child are now toxic and to be avoided. On the surface it appears the same as before, nothing looks different but the changes are on a micro and macro scale. This is not just about species extinction, which does occur naturally, but about short-term irreversible pollution of our Mother Earth.
Couple those massive changes with degradation of our food and drinking water, wholesale ingestion of pharmaceutical drugs, mass human migration across large geographic areas,and human caused climate change and we are presented with serious day to day health challenges. We can look no further than this winter's influenza outbreak that has resulted in numerous deaths and weaknesses.
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