Health gains in the last 150 years around the world have been a spectacular leap for human civilization. Numerous diseases were wiped out and health care for the majority of human beings on the planet improved in a remarkably short period of history. However, all of these scientific and medical gains are in danger of being lost because of the effects of climate change and environmental degradation, according to a report published last month in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet.
The report focuses on the effects on human health from human degradation of the environment. Such problems as ocean acidification, depleted water sources, polluted land, depletion of fish stocks and loss of biodiversity all threaten to have massive health consequences. The report, titled "Safeguarding Human Health in the Anthropocene Epoch" offers one of the first global evaluations of future health conditions by connecting human health to the ecological problems that humans have caused.
The term "anthropocene" has been used by many scientists, researchers and historians to describe the current period of history in which human activity has had profound effects on the earth's ecological conditions. The broad planetary focus of the main report was accompanied by more specific studies. In a study accompanying the main report and also published in Lancet, it was found that staple crops such as wheat, rice, barley and soy have lower levels than ever before of zinc, which is essential for human immune systems and the growth of children. Lower zinc in crops is the direct result of greatly increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.