Health & Environment: Beyond 2000

Yogi Berra, as usual, said it best: "Prediction is very hard, especially when it's about the future." Yet as we come to the end of the 20th century--a century that saw us split the atom, crack the genetic code and allow Aunt Martha to auction off her turquoise Fiesta ware online--it is only natural to ask what the 21st century will hold for us. We trust that the future will outmarvel the past, but all we can say for sure is that our lives will change more swiftly than ever. In the following pages we ask what we hope are provocative questions about our health and the health of our planet. The sobering news is that we will have more people to care for; the good news is that technology and common sense should allow us to take better care of the place we call home. Meanwhile, the imminent mapping of the human genome--all 140,000 genes--could lead to rapid advances in treating heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's and perhaps even AIDS. One of our enduring traits--after all, we have not only survived this long but prospered--is our optimism that life does improve, that despite wars and epidemics and natural disasters, we are better off today than we were 100 years ago. Prediction is hard, but who can fault us for looking forward to the new century with wonder?