Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Summaries
- Chapter 1 Air Pollution: Global Damage Costs from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 2 Armed Conflicts: The Economic Welfare Costs of Conflict
- Chapter 3 Climate Change: The Economic Impact of Climate Change in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Chapter 4 Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Economic Loss of Ecosystem Services from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 5 Education: The Income and Equity Loss of not Having a Faster Rate of Human Capital Accumulation
- Chapter 6 Gender Inequality: A Key Global Challenge – Reducing Losses due to Gender Inequality
- Chapter 7 Human Health: The Twentieth-Century Transformation of Human Health – Its Magnitude and Value
- Chapter 8 Malnutrition: Global Economic Losses Attributable to Malnutrition 1900–2000 and Projections to 2050
- Chapter 9 Trade Barriers: Costing Global Trade Barriers, 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 10 Water and Sanitation: Economic Losses from Poor Water and Sanitation – Past, Present, and Future
- Index
- References
Chapter 7 - Human Health: The Twentieth-Century Transformation of Human Health – Its Magnitude and Value
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
Edited by
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Summaries
- Chapter 1 Air Pollution: Global Damage Costs from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 2 Armed Conflicts: The Economic Welfare Costs of Conflict
- Chapter 3 Climate Change: The Economic Impact of Climate Change in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Chapter 4 Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Economic Loss of Ecosystem Services from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 5 Education: The Income and Equity Loss of not Having a Faster Rate of Human Capital Accumulation
- Chapter 6 Gender Inequality: A Key Global Challenge – Reducing Losses due to Gender Inequality
- Chapter 7 Human Health: The Twentieth-Century Transformation of Human Health – Its Magnitude and Value
- Chapter 8 Malnutrition: Global Economic Losses Attributable to Malnutrition 1900–2000 and Projections to 2050
- Chapter 9 Trade Barriers: Costing Global Trade Barriers, 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 10 Water and Sanitation: Economic Losses from Poor Water and Sanitation – Past, Present, and Future
- Index
- References
Summary
I have tried always to remember a simple truth about the past that the historically inexperienced are prone to forget. Most people in the past either died young or expected to die young, and those who did not were repeatedly bereft of those they loved . . . the power of death cut people off in their prime and made life seem precarious and filled with grief. It also meant that most of the people who built civilizations of the past were young when they made their contributions.
– Niall Ferguson, Civilization: The West and the Rest (2011, pp. xxii–xxiii)Ferguson refers to a past with mortality far higher than today, a past in which people not only died young but lived with frequent illness, undernutrition and (for women) the often debilitating consequences of high fertility. This past was not so very long ago. Section 1 will present long trends in life expectancy in the country where it is highest. From a period of virtually no change in mortality prior to 1790, improvements became rapid in the nineteenth century and extremely rapid in the period 1880–1960. During this latter period life expectancy in the leading country increased by 3.2 years per decade. And, as this chapter will document, not only did the leading country rapidly improve but much of the rest of the world converged toward the leader.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- How Much Have Global Problems Cost the World?A Scorecard from 1900 to 2050, pp. 207 - 246Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013
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