Transitions in Human Health: Surviving This Millennium by Learning from the Past One Hundred Millennia

Abstract

We have been living through several decades of great and rapid changes in the human condition. Life expectancies increased markedly during the twentieth century; populations are becoming 'older'; disease profiles are changing. The world is connecting up economically and electronically, market forces have become increasingly dominant, the post-Cold War political landscape has been transformed, cities are expanding rapidly, and material wealth is accruing — albeit unevenly. Meanwhile, however, a range of large-scale environmental changes is occurring, of which the most apparent is global climate change. This reflects a more fundamental process: the biosphere and its life-support systems are straining under the weight of human numbers, intensified food production, escalating carbon-based energy use and the spread of mass consumption behaviours.