The Sedentary Lifestyle – Artifact 1

Historical:

We are not alone. Every day of our lives, from preconception to postmortem, we coexist with millions upon millions of microorganisms. Most of these live symbiotically with us, but a few have evolved in such a way as to spread more rapidly and, unfortunately, some make us sick. In ‘ye olden days’ such disease-causing microorganisms were only an existential threat in extreme cases, such as the famous bubonic plague. Today’s world is more interconnected than ever before, and diseases have more vectors than any other time in history.

Everyone knows what the oldest occupation is… hunting. Early humans were nomadic hunters and gatherers that roamed over great distances seeking resources. Because of this lifestyle, they bred less, they didn’t stick around their own waste or leavings, and they had limited exposure to parasites. Equally importantly, population groups were small and isolated, so diseases requiring human vectors were absent. Hunter gatherers were still privy to their own, specialized infections, though. Parasites such as intestinal worms, lice, and fleas still adapted to humans at some point. Microbes with a zoonotic host could still be transmitted to humans such as trypanosomes, salmonella, tularemia, etc. Illnesses would be rare, and would infect the entire group, but they would only be able to travel within the group and then inevitably die out after enough hosts became immune or died off.

After 8000 BCE, humans began domesticating animals and developing agriculture. This caused the population to increase 160 times over and reach 800 million by 1750 CE. Population density increased 20 times over, and people started staying in one place. This stagnation of the common man grew areas that were a veritable paradise for rodents, flies, and mosquitos. Despite the pros of keeping domestic animals, they were also vectors for zoonotic illness as well as huge generators of waste. This amalgamation of humans was concentrated enough for animal diseases to evolve into major killers for humans. Smallpox, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria, plague, measles, and cholera all come from an animal origin.

These infectious diseases were born of the sedentary agricultural lifestyle, and they are made significantly worse in the modern world because we are more connected than ever before.

Current Application:

Impacts on population health are divided into three distinct areas: demographic changes, economic activity, and large-scale and systemic environmental impacts. Demographic changes include population growth, urbanization, increased population density, aging, and mobility. Economic activity includes the mobility of trade, labor conditions, wealth creation/distribution, international aid, and health care. Large-scale and systemic environmental impacts, perhaps the most important, include the degradation of land and water, resource depletion, ecosystem disturbance, and climate disturbance. The last of the list is not least among overall health concerns.

The modern socioeconomic strata are rapidly changing; they are squashing small farms and creating commercialized industries that pump out beef and poultry products. However, this modern marvel that provides so much sustenance increases the likelihood of mutation in certain viruses. In the opinion of Colonel Bell from VMI, “the most likely apocalypse for the modern world is the Influenza virus” and the probability that new strains of the virus will emerge is ever increasing, especially in the rural regions of Asia. Commercialized pig, chicken and duck farming places these animals in close proximity to one another and allows any latent viruses they carry to mix and mutate into a potential virus that has very high morbidity as well as a very high R₀, or rate of transmission.

 

‘Climate change’, in terms of the layman, is the very serious change in the climate of the entire earth that cannot be effectively fixed at the local level. This change in climate of at least .7 degrees Celsius will drastically shift global weather patterns causing some areas to become more arid, while increasing rainfall in others. More importantly, it is believed to be linked to a higher frequency in extreme weather events. We could have to deal with the direct consequences of heat waves and urban air pollution, changes in food yields or water flow, change in animal behavior, mental health, displaced groups, and increased global conflict due to a decline in basic resources. Some solutions to global warming are included in the graphic below and, as you can see, some of them are quite drastic.

If we seek do not seek to mediate global climate change, the effects of plague could be the thing that truly do us in.