Irrational Fear and What Will Kill Us

In recent weeks, the headlines have been full of hysteria about ebola. And that hysteria has been echoed on facebook, twitter, and throughout the blogosphere. That's not to minimize the impact that the ebola epidemic is having in several African nations or the individual impact that ebola has on individuals and families. By all accounts, it sounds like a horrible disease. However, the chances of any one person, particularly in the United States, contracting and dying from ebola are incredibly small.

On the other hand, we do know what is likely to kill us; we have it within our power to prevent it; and we don't really seem to care.

Chronic Illness

Most people in the United States die from chronic illness, with heart disease being the biggest killer of both men and women. According to the CDC, of the approximately 2.5 million Americans who died in 2011, nearly 595,000 died from cardiovascular disease, just over 575,000 died of cancer, and nearly 130,000 died of stroke. That's almost half of total deaths. These diseases are largely the result of diet and other lifestyle factors and in many cases are preventable, treatable, and reversible. Over the last few years, study after study has shown the dangers of eating meat, eggs, and dairy. According to Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, which provides links to more than a dozen studies:

A strong body of scientific evidence links excess meat consumption, particularly of red and processed meat, with heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, obesity, certain cancers, and earlier death. Diets high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans can help prevent these diseases and promote health in a variety of ways.

According to one expert, of the fifteen top causes of death in the United States, only one - accidents - cannot be prevented, treated, and/or reversed through a plant-based diet. Nevertheless, rather than striving to actually treat and reverse disease with diet, most doctors and patients are more willing to use drugs and surgeries that are dangerous and ultimately ineffective.

 

The animal agriculture industry, in collaboration with the U.S. government, spends millions of dollars a year to convince us to eat animal products. And, as I have detailed in depth elsewhere, the U.S. government provides less than transparent information to consumers in issuing the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. And yet if you try to inform people about this information that could save their lives, such as the comic NonSequitor has done recently, we are the ones accused of spreading propoganda:

Climate Change

If we don't die from chronic illness, climate change will probably kill us all. At least the most vulnerable of us. Climate change is a public health and environmental disaster.

Over the last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued a series of comprehensive reports on climate change. According to IPCC, climate change will cause an “alteration of ecosystems, disruption of food production and water supply, damage to infrastructure and settlements, morbidity and mortality, and consequences for mental health and human well-being” as well as an increase in violent conflict. Other impacts include “extreme weather events, sea level rise, climate refugees, adverse impacts on indigenous populations, and spreading of diseases.” Climate change will affect marginalized individuals and communities including those in the Global South most dramatically.

The Pentagon has identified climate change as a major threat to national security. And recently, the British Medical Journal appealed to the World Health Organization to declare climate change a public health emergency.

Animal agriculture contributes a huge proportion of greenhouse gases, as much as 18% of the total according to the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and more than half according to former World Bank environmental experts.

It is unclear whether there is still much we can do to stop climate change or whether we have delayed too long. But it is clear that this is something we should be freaking out about.

 ------

So we know what will kill us. It's not ebola. It's animal agriculture. And yet, we, as a society, seem completely unconcerned. There are few headlines drawing attention to these true crises that are within our power, even as individuals, to act to address.

The holidays, in particular, are a time of rampant overeating. And it's just not considered a party unless there's a decaying corpse on the table. This tradition is killing animals. It's killing us. It's killing our planet.Where is the sense of hysteria about this?

Here's Jon Stewart discussing this and related issues in a much more amusing way than I can: