health

Aging is the accumulation of changes in a living organism over time. Most
organisms have a predictable pattern of development and an easily established
life expectancy. However, with humans, the patterns of development and
life expectancy itself have been throughout the ages subject to a wide range
of threatening environmental and social conditions that came under some
control only in the 19th and 20th centuries. Disease has always been one
of the greatest environmental threats. Military action, slavery, and other
forms of physical cruelty affect life expectancy. As disease is eradicated, diet
is improved and the social threats are ameliorated, human life expectancy
tends to increase proportionately. Nevertheless, new environmental and
social threats continue to evolve. Diseases such as AIDS *, Ebola virus,
avian flu, and epidemic metabolic syndrome, along with climate change
and habitat reduction forcing hostilities over diminishing resources, are
21st-century threats to human life expectancy. In the early 2000s, the
refusal of nuclear powers, including the United States, to seriously limit
the deployment of nuclear weapons while continuing to use military force
to exercise global strategies in the interest of their perceived needs represents
another real threat to human longevity.

Jerry and Saba at 32