Global activism and the prospects for a healthier future
Economic inequality and ecological depredation are the two greatest health perils facing humanity. Globalization processes have intensified these entwined risks; but there are policy options that could begin to move both in a healthier direction. Some options are reform oriented, leaving basic economic systems intact; others are radical in the depth of global redistribution of wealth and environmental resources required. Mitigating policy choices from earlier chapters are gathered and summarized, along with descriptions of some of the peak civil society organizations working for global change across the activist spectrum from parsimonious reform to systemic overhaul. National governments remain the key policy actors in terms of how they choose to give shape to a contemporary globalization in need of a ‘shake up’ and not simply a ‘patch up’. The main advocates for such a ‘shake up’ at both national and global levels remain civil society organizations and their many activist members.