The five horsemen should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in climate change food distribution the water supply chronic illness or obesity in other words all of us this book challenges us to look at the global and local ramifications of everything we know and do barron h lerner md phd author of. The unique and dangerously threatening problem of global warming often called climate change is that it carries with it all the hazards of the biblical four horsemen pestilence war famine and death two of those horsemen embody seemingly permanent features of life itself. In recent decades we have seen five perilous and interlocking trends dominate global discourse irreversible climate change extreme food and water shortages rising chronic illnesses and rampant obesity why cant we make any progress in counteracting these problems despite vast expenditures of intellectual institutional and social capital what makes these global emergencies the wicked . Five horsemen of the modern world climate food water disease and obesity daniel callahan in recent decades we have seen five perilous and interlocking trends dominate global discourse irreversible climate change extreme food and water shortages rising chronic illnesses and rampant obesity. The book is divided into three sections comprising 11 chapters and focuses on five modern horsemen climate food water disease and obesity section one attempts to identify and quantify each