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Casting Aging as a Global Challenge
(Thursday December 17 2009)
 | In this age of big government and multinational endeavors, most people respond favorably to the familiar language of global challenges. Here is an attempt to place aging in those terms at In Search of Enlightenment: "Global aging is real, it's man made, and it threatens the health and economic prospects of the global population, especially the developing world. ... Because humans, unlike feral animals, have learned how to escape the causes of death long after reproductive success, we have revealed a process that, teleologically, was never intended for us to experience. One might conclude, therefore, that aging is an artifact of civilization. ... biological aging, and population aging, bring unprecedented challenges. Aging individuals faced increased risks of morbidity and mortality. Chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, etc. are set to ravage the aging populations of the world. This means unprecedented numbers of humans will suffer years of frailty and disease. Chronic diseases have replaced infectious diseases as the greatest threat to global health. ... So what are we going to do about global aging? At the end of this century our children and grandchildren will look back and ask: What were they thinking? Did they not see how dire the consequences of global aging can be? Did they not care about protecting all future generations from the chronic diseases that ravage humans in late life?" |
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