"In Six Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them, Mark Jerome Walters tells the human stories behind these diseases and brilliantly shows the connections between new epidemics and human changes to the natural environment. "So closely are new epidemics linked to ecological change," Walters argues, "they might rightfully be called ecodemics." Global climate change, deforestation, heavily industrialized agriculture, and wildlife decimation, not to mention global travel and commerce, he shows, have all contributed to the emergence and spread of these diseases. We are not simply victims of new illnesses; we are helping to cause or exacerbate them through changes we've made to the natural world."--BOOK JACKET.