COVID cases are spiking in Europe right now. Meanwhile, cases are starting to creep up

here too. Pfizer has asked FDA to approve its booster for all adults as new evidence

emerges that its efficacy may wane over time. President Biden has nominated Dr. Robert

Kalyth for FDA Commissioner. He led the agency under the Obama administration, but since

he's consulted with Big Farmer. This is America Disactive. I'm your host Dr. Abdul-Elsehib.

It's a conceit of our individualistic society that we're in control of our own health. If

we eat the right foods and do the right workout, if we take the right medicine or get the

right procedure, then we can all live the long healthy life we desire. We're all the captains

of our own ship. But so much of what happens to a ship is a function of the seas on which

it's sailing. And right now, those seas are choppy, and the sea level is rising. As we've

discussed quite a bit on the show, environments shape health in some profound ways. It's

whether or not you can take a walk in your community and know you won't be victimized

by a neighbor or even the police. It's whether or not you can get to healthy food options,

or if you can afford them if you're close. It's whether or not the air you breathe has

been polluted by some corporation next door, or the water you drink is safe and healthy,

or leaking lead from infrastructure long since ignored or forgotten. But zoom all the

way out and the boundary of our human environment is the earth itself. And right now, that environment

is suffering. For the past 200 years or so since the industrial revolution, when we decided

we would burn the black-suddy stuff we found underground to power our mills, heat our

homes and drive our vehicles, we've released huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.

That carbon acts as insulation, trapping the sun's heat, heating the earth. What's worse

is that we have destroyed the earth's own buffer, its forests, the 3D forestation. Trees

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