What future are we creating?

Citation

Robertson T (2023) What future are we creating?. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies. https://doi.org/10.1332/17579597y2023d000000006

Abstract
First paragraph: As I write this editorial on the morning of 14 November 2023, the Israeli bombardment of Gaza enters its 39th day. Lack of power, medical consumables, oxygen, food and water, not to mention the daily bombardments and fighting, have meant most of the hospitals in Gaza City and northern Gaza are no longer functioning. For example, in the Shifa Hospital, as of midnight, between 12 and 13 November, ‘600–650 inpatients, 200-500 staff, and 1,500 internally displaced persons were believed to have remained in the hospital. Among the patients at heightened risk of death were reportedly 36 babies in incubators and a number of kidney dialysis patients’ (OCHA, 2023a). The World Health Organization (WHO) has described the hospital as ‘nearly a cemetery’ (Slow, 2023). Some 11,000 people have been reported dead in Gaza since the conflict started, with over 27,000 injuries, reflecting 0.5% and 1.2% of the total population of 2.3 million. Further, 70% of Gazans, some 1.6 million people, have been internally displaced (OCHA, 2023b). Housing, food, water, sanitation, education and health are all severely impacted in this humanitarian crisis. Who knows what the situation will be like by the time you read this and when our January issue is published. What is happening in Gaza is heartbreaking, but also should not distract us from the other major conflicts and atrocities taking place in the likes of Syria, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Ukraine (to name just a few). As we start to face up to the reality of climate change, conflicts over finite resources and inhabitable land will only escalate.

Keywords
Life-span; Life-course Studies

Journal
Longitudinal and Life Course Studies

People

Dr Tony Robertson

Lecturer in Geographies of Public Health, Biological and Environmental Sciences