- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Viking Canada; 1 edition (Aug 29 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0670045195
- ISBN-13: 978-0670045198
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 16.3 x 2.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 544 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #319,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
Review
'Chilling...touches on all the hot-button diseases and even includes a few less-publicized nasties...a fascinating read.' -- Edmonton Journal
Book Description
A distinguished nineteenth-century pathologist once lamented that humanity's greatest curse was that "it can learn to tolerate even the most horrible situations by habituation." In Pandemonium, renowned author Andrew Nikiforuk argues that the breaking point is imminent as our health and habitat are threatened by biological invaders moving at unprecedented speed. Avian flu and its potential to cause a human pandemic is only one example of a worldwide menace unwittingly unleashed by the forces of globalization.
The combination of unfettered free trade in living organisms, increased mobility, and urban crowding has created an increasingly volatile environment for the world's 6.5 billion people. It explains how an enterprising Thai bird smuggler can pop up in Belgium and nearly ruin a continent's dinner in half a day; why cowboys in Wyoming can encounter West Nile fever; and how cholera colonized much of the world's waters in just seven pandemics. The relentless mingling of pests, weeds, and germs, abetted by worldwide trade, invites disaster. The intruder might be an economic saboteur or a global killer. It might be as ambitious as H5N1, as costly as SARS ($50 billion), or as contagious as foot-and-mouth disease. Nikiforuk argues that it shouldn't take a pandemic to make us rethink the deadly pace of globalization and biological traffic in all living things.
Authoritative and wide-ranging, Pandemonium is a clear-eyed guide to instability, unpredictability, and the hidden biological terrorists on our doorstep.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Free Trade To Pandemics,
By
This review is from: Pandemonium (Hardcover)
This is an excellent book. The writing is pacey and the material is riveting.The basic premise is very seriously that as global trade increases exponentially, so too does the risk of global pandemic. It may be just one of your common or garden diseases that get us - like cholera - imported into coastal economies by visiting ships pumping out the ballast they have carried half way round the world. It may be caused because some mad scientist that is working in one of a dozen countries unleashes anthrax. The chapter on Anthrax gets into some depth about the horrendous experiments done by Dr Ishii, a Japanese military doctor. And how at the end of WWII he traded his secret files for freedom. These detailed the infection of prisoners with anthrax and other pathogens - and then dissecting them without anaesthetic... Apparently he was not tried for war crimes, but instead went to Fort Detrick to continue his research! Hopefully this book will in its own way be a pathogen - an idea virus that will motivate us to all find ways to put the earth back in balance...
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very sobering,
By Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Pandemonium (Hardcover)
Just in case you thought you were uniquely immuned to any serious biological invasion of virulent micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses and fungi, Nikiforuk has news for you: you're not! As a science journalist of some repute, Nikiforuk has amassed a significant amount of current information to show how vulnerable we really are anywhere on the face of the planet. Even the threat to the natural habitats by the human introduction of exotic flora and fauna receives considerable scrutiny. The one concern that has me worried is the spread of drug resistant bacteria such as Methicillin Resistant Staphyloccus aureus and other superbugs like C.difficile through our hospitals. Though there might not be a lot of new information in his research, Nikiforuk does bring it all together to serve as yet another dire warning that all is not well with the earth and that corrective action must be taken immediaely. Great read with plenty of well documented evidence. He might have mentioned the problem with the carp infestation of the Mississippi River as the next great ecological disaster waiting to happen.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good read,
By R. Robinson - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Pandemonium (Hardcover)
I was talking with a friend about this author's book the Fourth Horseman and couldn't remember his name. In the process of looking him up, I can across this book. Both books are great and a must read for anyone truly interested in public health, conservation and medicine from all perspectives.
|
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Medicine > Internal Medicine > Infectious Disease > Epidemiology
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Medicine > Reference
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Medicine > Research > Epidemiology
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Sciences
- Books > Professional & Technical > Medical > Basic Sciences
- Books > Science > Mathematics
- Books > Science > Medicine > Internal Medicine > Infectious Disease > Epidemiology
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
