Many of the
greatest threats to human health today are products of our own creation. Chemicals in our water and foods breed
cancer. Air pollutants clog our lungs
and deplete the ever ominous ozone layer.
Our ever expanding cities and industries encroach on areas never before
inhabited by man, potentially holding diseases which could spread as a pandemic
across the world.
Our
ancestors obtained sustenance and nourishment for millions of years without the
assistance of unnatural chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, yet
most today believe that it is quite impossible to obtain our foods without
them. The most obvious imbalance is seen
in the mere twenty percent of the world’s population, those living in the
developed nations, consuming more than sixty five percent of the world’s
resources (McCally, 2002). Many of the
chemicals contained in our foodstuffs are known carcinogens, and can aid in the
spread of genetic diseases. Food that is
grown organically often has a better taste, contains many more nutrients in
higher quantities than in industry-standard crops, has no or little dangerous
chemicals, and is usually grown in a way not harmful to the environment
(Nagourney, 2007).
The first
globalization saw a rampant spread of disease when people moved from small
villages and tribes into great urban sprawls for groups were encountering
pathogens that their bodies had never seen before and the tools to fight them
off were not encoded into their genetic makeup (Hilts, 2005). We are beginning to see a very similar trend
with the expansion of our cities and industries into areas previously barren of
mankind. Like the American Indian’s
first encounter with small pox, our trip into the vast forests may be one of
curiosity and desire, it may well unleash a dangerous foe upon us like we have
not ever seen before. Lyme disease began
in the eastern United States after the large farms that stood there in the 16th
and 17th centuries were abandoned, giving way to new growth and an
unprecedented increase in the deer population.
With the movement of people from the cities to the suburbs in the mid
1950s and since, society has been encroaching much closer to the young wildlife
habitats. The increase presence of
people in the area has seen the rise of a disease which before was not really
known. Lyme disease is a direct result
of human encroachment. People destroyed
the original ecosystem and when they returned became the victims of the disease
they virtually created. In a similar
fashion, but not altogether the same is the story of Hanta virus. It is believed that the disease, carried in
the feces, urine, and saliva of rodents, has existed in the four corners area
for thousands of years, however the encroachment of cities into the rural,
forested areas which most rodents called home has allowed for the disease to
spread beyond its original area. Rats
and mice love to enter the houses put up along the lake shores and under the
trees spreading the virus to those who happen upon them (Walters, 2003).
While it
will likely always be necessary for mankind to enter “uncharted territory” in
the need for more space, there are better ways to expand than the practices
which have been especially prevalent over the past hundred years. Mass deforestation, rerouting of water
sources and species extinction all alter the ecosystem making what was once a
predictable area quite unpredictable and therefore quite dangerous. Just as unpredictable are the effects that
the massive use of chemicals over the past fifty years will have on future
generations. We may see great genetic
mutations, large jumps in disease numbers, and an increase in cancers, and
definitely many negative things which we do not currently foresee as
possibilities. All in all it is
necessary that we be much more careful in how we affect the environment which
surrounds us.
Works Cited
Hilts, Phillip. 2005. Rx for Survival: Why We Must Rise to
the Global Health Challenge.
McCally, Michael. 2002. Life Support: The Environment and Human
Health.
Nagourney, Eric. The New York Times. Another Benefit is Seen in Buying Organic
Produce. July 17, 2007.
Walters, Mark. 2003. Six Modern Plagues and How We Are
Causing Them.
This article originally written December 15th, 2008 as a final for OU IPE 3913 - Human Health, Disease, and the Environment.
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