"Syndemic" is a term coined my Merrill Singer in the 1990s as a portmanteau of "synergistic" and "epidemic." In its simplest construction it refers to two or more diseases, co-occurring in a population, whose interaction produces increased morbidity and mortality. For example, opioid addiction, HIV, and other infectious diseases. Needle sharing transmits HIV, which in turn causes immunodeficiency, which increases susceptibility to other infections.
However, syndemics usually involve social conditions as well. The original epidemic of injection drug use originated in social conditions, as a simple example, but syndemics can be far more complex. Typically, concentrated disadvantage of a community has multiplying synergistic consequences. I apply the term syndemic to the multiple, mutually entangled crises facing humanity. In order to meet the global emergency, preserve and build upon the gains of the 20th Century, we need to understand the emergency in syndemic terms and pull on the threads so as to disentangle it. First, here is a summary of important components of the emergency. All of the issues in the top half of the box apply to the U.S., but I also note some specific challenges we face nationally as illustrative of important public health problems.
Although resource depletion is listed first, it can only be understood within the context of climate change. So I'll start there. I presume readers already know what follows but I want to make sure you have a quantitative understanding. BTW the situation has only gotten worse since I pulled these slides from The Lancet.
The basic point is that we need to start reducing carbon emissions now, and bend the curve down sharply, to get onto even the intermediate path. but even that leads to a 2 degree Celsius rise in average global temperature, which will be catastrophic in many ways. And it has to start right here:
Here are some of the consequences, broadly stated:
Next time, I'll unpack some of these.
1 comment:
Too many tipping points. At +2*C we loose the greenland ice sheet and freshwater overturns the atlantic current heat exchange. That in turn melts the antarctic and thus we lose most of the amazon rainforest, releasing megatons of carbon. We also lose the permafrost, releasing yet more carbon... Once we hit +2 then +4 or +6 becomes inevitable.
I really don't think we're going to make it; time to look for land in the arctic.
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