Ecosystems Health Article

PREVENTION OF ECOSYSTEM DISRUPTIONS

Given the difficulties in reversing ecosystem degradation, and the many associated human health risks that arise with the loss of ecosystem health, the most effective approach is simply the prevention of ecosystem disruption. However, like many common-sense approaches, this is easier said than done. In both developed and developing countries there is a strong inclination to continue economic growth, even at the cost of severe environmental damage. Apart from selfish motivations, the argument is made that economic growth has many obvious health benefits, such as providing more efficient means of distributing food supplies, providing more plentiful food, and providing better health services and funding for research to improve standards of living. These are indeed benefits of economic development, and have led to substantial increases in health status worldwide.

However, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, the past is not necessarily the best guide to the future. The human population is at an alltime high, and associated pressures of human activity have led to increasing degradation of the earth's ecosystems. As ultimately healthy ecosystems are essential for life of all biota, including humans, current global and regional trends are ominous. Under these circumstances, a tradeoff between immediate material gains and long-term sustainability of humans on the planet may be the only option. If so, the solution to sustaining human health and ecosystem health becomes one of devising a new politic that places sustaining lifesupport systems as a precondition for betterment of the human condition.

DAVID J. RAPPORT

(SEE ALSO: Acid Rain; Ambient Air Quality [Air Pollution]; Ambient Water Quality; Biodiversity; Cholera; Ecological Footprint; Emerging Infectious Diseases; Global Burden of Disease; PCBs; Pesticides; Pollution; Vector-Borne Diseases)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aldhous, P. (2000). "Inquiry Blames Missed Warnings for Scale of Britain's BSE Crisis." Nature 408:3–5.

Baquero, R., and Blazquez, J. (1997). "Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance." Trends in Ecology and Evolution 12:482–487.

Bright, C. (1998). Life Out of Bounds: Bioinvasion in a Borderless World. New York: W. W. Norton.

Colwell, R. R. (1996). "Global Climate and Infectious Disease: The Cholera Paradigm." Science 274:2025–2031.

Colwell, R. R., and Patz, J. A. (1998). Climate, Infectious Disease and Health: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Washington, DC: American Academy of Microbiology.

Epstein, P. R. (1995). "Emerging Diseases and Ecosystem Instability: New Threats to Public Health." American Journal of Public Health 85(2):168–172.

Huq, A., and Colwell, R. R. (1996). "Vibrios in the Marine and Estuarine Environment: Tracking Vibrio Cholerae." Ecosystem Health 2:198–214.

Mageau, M. T.; Costanza, R.; and Ulanowicz, R. E. (1995). "The Development and Initial Testing of a Quantitative Assessment of Ecosystem Health." Ecosystem Health 1:201–213.

Rapport, D. J. (1989). "What Constitutes Ecosystem Health?" Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 33:120–132.

Rapport, D. J., and Friend, A. M. (1979). Towards a Comprehensive Framework for Environmental Statistics: A Stress-Response Approach. Ottawa: Statistics Canada.

Rapport, D. J., and Regier, H. A. (1980). "An Ecological Approach to Environmental Information." Ambio 9:22–27.

—— (1995). "Disturbance and Stress Effects on Ecological Systems." In Complex Ecology: The Part-Whole Relation in Ecosystems, ed. B. C. Patten and S. E. Jorgensen. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Rapport, D. J.; Costanza, R.; and McMichael, A. J. (1998). "Assessing Ecosystem Health: Challenges at the Interface of Social, Natural, and Health Sciences." Trends in Ecology and Evolution 13(10):397–401.

Rapport, D. J.; Christensen, N.; Karr, J. R.; and Patil, G. P. (1998). "The Centrality of Ecosystem Health in Achieving Sustainability in the Twenty-First Century: Concepts and Approaches to Environmental Management." In Human Survivability in the Twenty-First Century, ed. D. M. Hayne. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Rapport, D. J.; Costanza, R.; Epstein, P. R.; Gaudet, R.; and Levins, R., eds. (1998). Ecosystem Health. Malden, MA: Blackwell Science.

Rapport, D. J., and Whitford, W. (1999). "How Ecosystems Respond to Stress: Common Properties of Arid and Aquatic Systems." Bio Science 49(3):193–203.

Rapport, D. J.; Regier, H. A.; and Hutchinson, T. C. (1985). "Ecosystem Behavior under Stress." American Naturalist 125:617–640.

Reeves, W. C.; Hardy, J. L.; Reisen, W. K.; and Milby, M. M. (1994). "The Potential Effect of Global Warming on Mosquito-Borne Arboviruses." Journal of Medical Entomology 31(3):323–332.

Ruiz, G. M.; Rawlings, T. K.; Dobbs, F. C.; Drake, L. A.; Mullady, T.; Huq, A.; and Colwell, R. R.. (2000). "Global Spread of Microorganisms by Ships." Nature 408:49–50.

Watson R. T.; Zinyowera, M. C.; and Moss, R. H., eds. (1996). Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.