Climate Change and the Health of Nations
Famines, Fevers, and the Fate of Populations
Anthony McMichael
Reviews and Awards
Maclean's Ten Best Books of 2017
"In Climate Change and the Health of Nations, the late Anthony McMichael connects the dots, rewinding the tape of history, in the words of historian Geoffrey Parker, to examine how climatic shifts have affected the evolution of human beings and their societies and the health of populations." -- Jose Siri (United Nations University, International Institute for Global Health), Population and Development Review, Vol. 44.1
"Urgent in tone... Offering hindsight as well as foresight, McMichael makes a strong argument for sustainability."--Publishers Weekly
"This is a book to inspire thoughts of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse-famine, plague, war and death-and how we rarely stop to realize that they ride on the winds of environmental change... Those who scoff at climatologists' predictions should take a look at historians' accounts."--Maclean's
"The book's goal is not to make predictions but to motivate change, which McMichael does by bringing into focus humanity's sensitivity to fluctuations in the natural climate system throughout history."--Science Magazine
"[Climate Change and the Health of Nations] lucidly, and at times lyrically, chronicles 200,000 years of human history through a climate lens."--Nature
"[McMichael] deftly traces the great environmental 'undercurrents that shaped the fates of civilisations, their cultures, ideologies, and power structures'. He calls for an extraordinary civilisational response. McMichael is optimistic about the world's 'mega-problem'. He tells the story for the first time of 'the historical interplay between climate change, human health, disease, and survival'. It is a magnificent treatise. It demands our attention. And action."--The Lancet, Richard Horton
"The writing is clear, unadorned, and engaging. The scholarly reach is breathtaking... This splendid book is a call to action... And if we are successful, as we must be, Tony McMichael's contributions will live on as a vital part of that legacy."--EcoHealth, Howard Frumkin
"This sober, forceful history anticipates the potential cataclysms to come, in a world that, because of man-made emissions, is warming at an unprecedented rate."--New Yorker
"Not just another climate polemic, this is a grand (not grandiose) examination of the interplay between global climate, civilization, agriculture, populations, economies, and policies, in a broad historical framework... An invaluable resource."--CHOICE Reviews