TY - JOUR
T1 - Planetary Overload, Limits to Growth and Health
AU - Butler, Colin D.
N1 - Funding Information:
Colin D. Butler reports, in the last 5 years, grants from the Australian Research Council, other from Elsevier, other from United Nations University, other from University of California, San Diego, personal fees from University of Oulu, Finland, and other from University of Oulu, Finland. He has received occasional honoraria, frequent travel expenses and royalties for material related to this article. He has traded in stocks whose market value can be expected to increase if the material in this article is taken more seriously.
Funding Information:
Yet, despite so much evidence, the issues of planetary overload and limits to growth remain peripheral to most health workers, including to the framers of most public health conferences, who appear to still regard these issues as boutique. A heartening exception is a recent report by the Canadian Public Health Association []. Funding for these multidisciplinary issues has also been scarce, though the Wellcome Trust’s recent round called “Our Planet Our Health” is welcome, as is support from the Rockefeller Foundation and The Lancet for the Planetary Health Commission []. Future Earth Health may consider these issues, complementing those of Health-Earth, which is a unique network of workers in public health, environmental science, and epidemiology founded in 2014 []. Time is short; there is much to be done. Enormous opportunities lie ahead, if they can be grasped. These issues must be central to twenty-first century public health; if not, we may not have public health worthy of that name in the twenty-second century. Acknowledgments
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Springer International Publishing AG.
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - Since the use of atomic weapons in 1945 visionaries have warned that without major changes the survival of global civilization is in question. These concerns deepened in following decades, during the Cold War, with The Limits to Growth, the best-selling environmental book of the 1970s. Yet, since then, most concern has faded, fuelled by technological developments and a shift in dominant global ideology. Public health, with a few exceptions (one of which is the book Planetary Overload), has been slow to recognize this debate, even as evidence emerges that civilization may indeed be at risk, driven by an increasingly ominous complex of events. This article outlines the key relevant literature and concepts, attempting to bring emerging and future health consequences to the attention of health workers, including the idea of a "social vaccine," conveying sufficient anxiety to provoke action for environmental protection, but insufficient to induce paralysis.
AB - Since the use of atomic weapons in 1945 visionaries have warned that without major changes the survival of global civilization is in question. These concerns deepened in following decades, during the Cold War, with The Limits to Growth, the best-selling environmental book of the 1970s. Yet, since then, most concern has faded, fuelled by technological developments and a shift in dominant global ideology. Public health, with a few exceptions (one of which is the book Planetary Overload), has been slow to recognize this debate, even as evidence emerges that civilization may indeed be at risk, driven by an increasingly ominous complex of events. This article outlines the key relevant literature and concepts, attempting to bring emerging and future health consequences to the attention of health workers, including the idea of a "social vaccine," conveying sufficient anxiety to provoke action for environmental protection, but insufficient to induce paralysis.
KW - Anthropocene
KW - Civilization collapse
KW - Climate change
KW - Conflict
KW - Environmental determinism
KW - Human carrying capacity
KW - Public Health
KW - Humans
KW - Civilization
KW - Climate Change
KW - Ecosystem
KW - Population Density
KW - Earth (Planet)
KW - Global Health/trends
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85029026984&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.mendeley.com/research/planetary-overload-limits-growth-health
U2 - 10.1007/s40572-016-0110-3
DO - 10.1007/s40572-016-0110-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 27665440
AN - SCOPUS:85029026984
SN - 2196-5412
VL - 3
SP - 360
EP - 369
JO - Current environmental health reports
JF - Current environmental health reports
IS - 4
ER -
