Paul R. Epstein (1943–2011)
Author of Changing Planet, Changing Health: How the Climate Crisis Threatens Our Health and What We Can Do about It
About the Author
Works by Paul R. Epstein
Changing Planet, Changing Health: How the Climate Crisis Threatens Our Health and What We Can Do about It (2011) 44 copies
Results that Matter: Improving Communities by Engaging Citizens, Measuring Performance, and Getting Things Done (2005) 15 copies
Medical Testimony on Victims of Torture: A Physician's Guide to Political Asylum Cases (1991) 2 copies
Textbook of thermodynamics 2 copies
Global migration : the health care implications of immigration and population movements (1997) 1 copy
Turning Heaven and Earth 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Epstein, Paul R.
- Legal name
- Epstein, Paul Robert
- Birthdate
- 1943-11-16
- Date of death
- 2011-11-13
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New York, New York, USA
- Place of death
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Education
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine (MD|1969)
Members
Reviews
Awards
Statistics
- Works
- 11
- Members
- 71
- Popularity
- #245,552
- Rating
- 3.3
- Reviews
- 1
- ISBNs
- 9
The pattern of extra water and invasive flooding sets up a domino effect in plant and animal life, and these combine with pathogens to exacerbate the change. What Dr. Epstein shows is what happens next: viruses appear that were dormant or unheard of regionally before. Excessive plant growth alters feeding patterns of animals, causing less (or more) of them and thus further altering the previous balance.
His point is clear and crosses political lines. Focusing on the delicate and fragile balance of the Earth's ecosystems, he shows how change perpetuated by pollution, poor resource management, and greed make for very real consequences in terms of health. Asthma and allergies are only some of the results-major infectious diseases run wild when an ecosystem is out of balance.
It could be a dry read, but it isn't...anecdotal stories and hard data make it lively and potentially scary. When one CDC expert goes to testify before Congress, she has most of her testimony redacted to prevent offending some of the audience. How can the problem be solved if no one gets to hear the truth about it?
One website features an interesting interview with the author, wherein he suggests the political polarizing option of a slight (ACK! The horror!) tax increase to raise funds for better infrastructure. In addition, he makes the case for the way European manufacturers have to prove the safety of their product-a far different stance than the US method. It's an interesting article. http://adventures-in-climate-change.com/climatecentral/index.php/2011/04/22/chan...
Just for a kick, NASA has some fascinating charts with average land and ocean temperatures here: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/.… (more)