Global Environmental Change and Human Health

It has become evident that our planetary ecosystem is changing rapidly in response to human activities. This has led scientists to recognize the present-day era as a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, in recognition of the substantial effect of man on the Earth’s systems. Human health is better today than at any other time in history. Yet the flourishing of civilization has come at the cost of an unsustainable exploitation of nature’s resources. As we look toward the future, it has become clear that we now face substantial health risks from the degradation of the natural life support systems which is critical for human survival. Global environmental change, including climatic change, ocean acidification, land degradation, water scarcity, overexploitation of fisheries, and biodiversity loss, poses serious challenges to the global health gains of the past several decades.