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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 June 2012
The dangers of mass emergencies are greater today than ever before in the history of man. The reasons are:
1) The exponential growth of the world population from 2 billion in 1925 to 4 billion today and to an expected 8 billion in the year 2025. This growing population is badly in need of more and more food and energy to sustain itself.
2) The increasingly severe competition world-wide for the available supplies of food and energy will precipitate mass emergencies and even mass disasters. Some of these mass disasters, such as nuclear war, have the potential to destroy entire countries…or even the human race itself.
No matter how gloomy the outlook is, however, it is still the task of the medical profession to recognize this growing danger and to do everything possible to be prepared for and treat not only individual emergencies, but mass disasters as well.
* Special invited lecture held at the Second World Congress on Emergency and Disaster Medicine in 1981, Pittsburgh PA, USA.