Needed: tenable values or five to ten more earth-sized planets. Interview by Desmond Avery.

John Last has worked as a ship’s surgeon on intercontinental voyages, an epidemiologist and university teacher in Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, and a consultant in numerous developing countries. He has won prestigious awards for his contributions to epidemiology and preventive medicine. Among his current preoccupations is the blindness of the media, the general public and decision-makers as to what is really at stake globally for human health now and in the coming years.