Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided?

Ehrlich, Paul R.; Ehrlich, Anne H.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.2845

Cited by 333 publications

(227 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…Ultimately SHE education is vital as climate change and environmentally unsustainable practices pose perils to human health and existence. [1,33] Increased knowledge means environmentally sustainable practices are learned [12] and further environment-related deterioration of the health of society and planet, prevented.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of core objectives for teaching sustainable healthcare education

Teherani

Nishimura

Apatira

et al. 2017

Medical Education Online

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Background: Physicians will be called upon to care for patients who bear the burden of disease from the impact of climate change and ecologically irresponsible practices which harm ecosystems and contribute to climate change. However, physicians must recognize the connection between the climate, ecosystems, sustainability, and health and their responsibility and capacity in changing the status quo. Sustainable healthcare education (SHE), defined as education about the impact of climate change and ecosystem alterations on health and the impact of the healthcare industry on the aforementioned, is vital to prevention of adverse health outcomes due to the changing climate and environment. Objective: To systematically determine which and when a set of SHE objectives should be included in the medical education continuum. Design: Fifty-two SHE experts participated in a two-part modified-Delphi study. A survey was developed based on 21 SHE objectives. Respondents rated the importance of each objective and when each objective should be taught. Descriptive statistics and an item-level content validity index (CVI) were used to analyze data. Results: Fifteen of the objectives achieved a content validity index of 78% or greater. The remaining objectives had content validity indices between 58% and 77%. The preclinical years of medical school were rated as the optimal time for introducing 13 and the clinical years for introducing six of the objectives. Respondents noted the definition of environmental sustainability should be learned prior to medical school and identifying ways to improve the environmental sustainability of health systems in post-graduate training. Conclusions: This study proposes SHE objectives for the continuum of medical education. These objectives ensure the identity of the physician includes the requisite awareness and competence to care for patients who experience the impact of climate and environment on health and advocate for sustainability of the health systems in which they work. Abbreviations: CVI: Content validity index; SHE: Sustainable healthcare education

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of core objectives for teaching sustainable healthcare education

Teherani

Nishimura

Apatira

et al. 2017

Medical Education Online

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“…They often describe the situation that humanity faces now and in coming decades as a "perfect storm" of simultaneous crises (Sample 2009, Ahmed 2011, Ehrlich and Ehrlich 2013, Morgan 2013. Although evocative, this phrase implies that the crises align solely by chance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchronous failure: the emerging causal architecture of global crisis

Homer‐Dixon¹,

Walker²,

Biggs³

et al. 2015

E&S

183

113

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ABSTRACT. Recent global crises reveal an emerging pattern of causation that could increasingly characterize the birth and progress of future global crises. A conceptual framework identifies this pattern's deep causes, intermediate processes, and ultimate outcomes. The framework shows how multiple stresses can interact within a single social-ecological system to cause a shift in that system's behavior, how simultaneous shifts of this kind in several largely discrete social-ecological systems can interact to cause a far larger intersystemic crisis, and how such a larger crisis can then rapidly propagate across multiple system boundaries to the global scale. Case studies of the 2008-2009 financial-energy and food-energy crises illustrate the framework. Suggestions are offered for future research to explore further the framework's propositions.

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“…Many have claimed that technological fixes alone will solve the food security problem, but the record does not give us great hope (5). A call for dramatic global changes that do not rely on new technologies resonated worldwide in response to Pope Francis' encyclical on the environment (10).…”

Section: First Steps Toward Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%