Coronavirus: ‘Nature is sending us a message’, says UN environment chief.
Real Life This coronavirus is the wake-up call for a complacent civilisation.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 25th March 2020
‘Tip of the iceberg’: is our destruction of nature “responsible for Covid-19?
Humanity’s destruction of biodiversity creates the conditions for new diseases such as Covid-19, the viral epidemic that emerged in China in December 2019, and within months became a global pandemic.
Coronavirus, a new EID, Emerging Infectious Disease arises. Sparked at a ‘wet-market’ in China, which abound in Asia and Africa, where humans bring in live and dead wildlife (frequently endangered species) to sell for human consumption. The animals they introduce for slaughter are from diverse environments, crowded together, which is unhealthy as it is, but a recipe for disaster when their proximity to humans introduce viruses for which humans do not have immunities. No doubt the stresses and horror these animals feel as they are trapped, handled roughly and packed into these places, weakens their own immune systems.
“For the animals, wet markets are hell on earth. Thousands of sentient, palpitating beings endure hours of suffering and anguish before being brutally butchered. This is just one small part of the suffering that humans systematically inflict on animals in every country – in factory farms, laboratories, and the entertainment industry.“
The combination of animal trade and the fact that the human population continues to encroach more and more on animal habitats, leads to human communities being more at risk. They have closer contact to animals for whom the viruses are not harmful whatsoever, yet lethal to humans.
Accelerating habitat loss behind Covid-19
The fact that the human population is increasing exponentially, demanding more and more energy and housing, leads to this perpetual invasion of the habitats of other species and destruction of the natural world around us. Humans have been massively disrupting ecosystems worldwide. Humans are not merely damaging the balance of biodiversity, but precipitating a “biological annihilation” of species, a planetary 6th Mass Extinction. As scientists such as the physicist and deep ecologist Fritjof Capra, become more cognizant of the interdependent nature of living systems, they recognize how critical it is to maintain healthy ecosystems everywhere. The discipline “Planetary health“ has emerged to educate and guide people towards sustainable practices. It focuses on “the sustainability of our civilization and the toll of inequitable, inefficient and unsustainable resource consumption on the planet and human health. In addition to public health and environmental health considerations, it examines upstream political, economic, and social systems and calls for an interdisciplinary approach.”
“Planetary Health characterizes the human health impacts of human-caused disruptions of Earth’s natural systems.”
In the meantime, EID’s such as SARS, MERS, AIDS, EBOLA, CORONa-19 will continue to be introduced to the human population, because of how disruptive humans are to the habitats of other creatures on the planet. Obviously, certain populations such as Buddhist and Indigenous people have not had this disregard for other ‘Earthlings’. However, the Western world for centuries, has been objectifying the natural world and assigning a monetary value to an area or entity, rather than recognizing its worth, in itself, alive and healthy. By disassociating value and having no compassion or respect for the living systems on the planet, mankind has carved a reputation as the most vicious predator.
All other creatures and territories on the planet are ‘fair game’, to do with as we please, often perpetuating rituals that have been in place in various cultures for many generations. It’s hard enough for an individual to change habits. To question or abandon traditions that have been ingrained in a culture for centuries, seems excruciatingly difficult. Yet now, most of us on the planet are being quarantined and enforced into ‘social distancing’. Routines of work, study and social gathering in the proximity of others, stopped.
This Cartesian, mechanistic and reductionist view which has dominated, is what has ushered in the Anthropocene epoch, in which humans dominate the planet, and have excessively changed it.
We embrace our technologies for transport and construction, in the age of perpetual development. Most of our time is dominated with how to ‘make’ money, as the end-all goal. The motto is that money will provide freedom. Car advertisements seduce us with the association that ownership of a slick automobile will lure the mate and guarantee glamorous getaways in rugged nature. Yet for the last decades, even with automation, people are working longer hours (if at all) and have even less time for leisure. I noticed decades ago at university, that students were already more consumed with choosing a major in a ‘field’ more likely to ensure a lucrative career, and abominably less interested in learning, for itself. Even education is commodified.
In the age of consumerism, plots of land, forested woods, rivers and fields, creatures of the land and water, are regarded as something that we use for resources and organize our slaughter rituals around. Back when the population of the earth was not increasing at an exponential rate, it seemed to be ‘fair game’ to seasonally slaughter whales, buffalo, dolphins, elephants, rhinoceroses, wildcats and now pangolins, as fast as we could. These rituals continue, and the open seas and savannas seem to be lawless, where large industrial scale operations of fishing (with huge nets of by-catch and ruthless scraping of the ocean floor) as well as organized crime involved in utilizing helicopters to kill wild game, are rampant.
What is incomprehensible, is that as humans have learned how intelligent and fascinating various different species are; such as bird intelligence, empathy in elephants, the intricacy, intelligence and fascination of the octopus…we nevertheless continue to poach, slaughter, harvest and eat them.
Humans have so prodigiously crafted and heralded their technological prowess, yet act towards one another and towards the earth and its creatures with such ruthless violence; something to control, abuse and conquer. With more time on my hands now that every activity involving a gathering of people has benefited cancelled, I was exposed this article by Charmers on “Dismantling Empire”, contributed to Tom Dispatch. He speaks about American excessive militarism, and citizens having an 800 pound Gorilla in the room, in reference to the literally 800 military bases the USA has throughout the world. If all were released and abdicated, it would provide Trillions of dollars. What I had not realized as a fan of the personality of Barack Obama, and perhaps didn’t want to know, is that as he made strides in protecting environmental policies, he also full-out sustained and strengthened the military budget, which sort of defeats the other efforts.
Presently, the increase in fascist leaders populating the globe, pray on peoples’ fear of the ‘other’, refugees arriving at their doorsteps from far away. Most of whom are forced to leave their homelands, having no choice. They have been affected by the warming globe which has caused droughts, failed crops, fires and floods. Besides the massive destruction of the natural world through various dirty industries, it is predominantly the USA, followed by other wealthy countries of the Global North, who precipitated climate change. Ironically, instead of acknowledging our role in global heating due to the energy consumption habits of the western world, rather than organizing around circumventing the actions that destabilize planetary systems further and dramatically accelerating actions to prescribe, implement and enforce sweeping social changes (as is being instituted at this present time of the coronavirus pandemic, these leaders are instead castigating the refugees and further investing in deals to create jobs, enrich some, while spoiling places without the slightest consideration of the repercussions to the species living there. The Amazon rainforest for Bolsonaro is fair game. Propping up negligent industries involving petroleum and plastics is fair game. The Western obsession with material consumption, as a right of passage and display of one’s worth in society, seems to be endlessly packaged into slick advertising and the Hollywood illusion that perpetuates it.
Yuval Noah Harari, history, Homo sapiens, cooperation, storytellers, finance fiction
Historian Yuval Noah Harari points out that the reason human beings today dominate the world as they do, is because of our capacity to believe in fictions and share the same stories. He talks of bankers as being very successful story tellers.
In response to the billionaire Mark Benioff’s op ed stating that the current system of capitalism has lead to horrifying inequalities, Anand Giridharadas, author of “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World,” tweeted Monday, “…I don’t trust business to behave better voluntarily, any more than I trust cats with mice care,” adding that he supports raising taxes on the wealthy. “The best way to get business to behave better is to drastically reduce business’s power,” Giridharadas tweeted.
Naomi Klein points out that now is the time that we can push forward what might have been considered radical ideas just a few weeks ago. At the time of shock among populations, is prime breeding ground for disaster capitalism. When people are distracted and off balance, the economic elite can slide in new game plans: heighten security, bail out banks and the dirtiest industries and ignore any wrong doing or unethical practices of the large institutions in which they have holdings. Wars have been big money makers among particular private firms. Various US Senators just sold their stock options days before the market crashed, while President Trump minimized the risks of the virus. He then assigned not a medical doctor or infectious disease specialist in charge of organizing the country’s health response to this pandemic, but his political VP in charge.
As people are suddenly forced to stay home, businesses close, paychecks not received, it is perhaps time for people to realize that a stimulus of $1,200 for each household, is like throwing coins or loaves of plastic-wrapped white bread on the streets, and cases of plastic water bottles. When in the same paragraph it’s mentioned that airlines, oil and gas industries and cruise ships, automobile – all fueling economic and health atrocities, will be bailed out. The economic gap pivoted to be deeper. The very industries that are tearing up the earth, for our consumption, are deemed to continue. Humans have continued to focus on maximizing their profits and buying and building and thinking that it’s fair game. We continue to chase the dollar, regardless of what is destroyed in the process.
Is this not a tipping point? With the recent spike in the ‘Billionaires club’ in the last decades, this imbalance also beckons change
The virus is the earth’s response to having her lungs and tissues choked, poisoned and burned and creatures assaulted, imprisoned, abused and put in misery.
The cosmos, our earth system, is letting us know that we need to re-assess what is fair game. And stop treating all of life – a tree, a bush, grasses, rivers and streams, plants and animals – as something disposable that we can do with as we please. Iit would be very unpleasant to live in a convenient, paved world with a Walmart, other cheap franchises populating every corner, while deforesting and paving every patch of nature.
With this economic premise of the primacy of profit, humans as well as all of the natural world are redundant and disposable. Gone are opportunities of individual craftsmanship and artistry, to create vocations through love, devotion to expertise and caring to protect the earth. With the acceptance of the ‘merger and acquisitions’ mentality as fair game, all individual enterprise is completely shoved out of competition.
No, this system of slavery to the economic elite who have cameras and security and sooner than later, computer chips inserted under your skin, so that at a gesture of a click, they could wipe out all of the undesirables >>> all who are not them, tucked away, insulated and isolated in their glass cages.
The coronavirus is a climactic act of the cosmic laws of nature, to suspend the catastrophic destruction of humanity, for which, Morelli states, we obviously have an excessive debt.
Reflections on the Coronavirus by Raffaele Morelli, an Italian psychiatrist and psychotherapist’s insight. I was touched by his message, translated it. The French version is below.
A Reflection on the Coronavirus by Raffaele Morelli Italian psychiatrist and psychotherapist:
“I believe that the laws of the cosmos have their way of establishing an equilibrium, rebalancing, when things becomes upset. The times that we are living, full of anomalies and paradoxes, makes us think …
In this phase where climate change, caused by environmental disasters, has reached worrying levels. First China, then so many other countries, are building blockades; the economy is falling apart,
but pollution is decreasing considerably.
The air is improving; we use a mask, but we breathe.
In a historic moment when, all over the world, reactive ideologies and discriminatory policies strongly recall our brutal history, a virus arrives, which makes us realize that, in an instant, we can also become the discriminated, the segregated, those who are blocked at the border, who bring disease.
Even if we have nothing to do with it. Even if we are white, western and travel first class.(power complex).
In a society based on productivity and consumption, in which we run 14 hours a day without really knowing why, without Saturdays nor Sundays,
without much pause on our schedules, suddenly, the – STOP – arrives.
All stationary, must remain at home for days and days.
To count the time whose value we have lost
as soon as it is no longer measurable
in money, in profit.
If one only knew what to do?
In a period when the education of our own children, by force of circumstance, is often
delegated to various figures and institutions, the virus closes schools and forces us to find alternative solutions to reunite mothers and fathers with their own children.
It forces us to re-create the “family”.
In a dimension where relationships, communication, socializing are essentially played out in this virtual non-space of social networks giving us the illusion of proximity,
the virus takes away our closeness,
that which is truly real: no one should touch each other,
no kissing, no hugging
maintain a distance, the coldness of non-contact.
How long have we taken these gestures and their significance for granted?
In a social climate where thinking about yourself has become the rule,
the virus sends us a clear message:
the only way out of it is reciprocity, a sense of belonging, community
to feel part of something bigger.
so it’s necessary to take care
and who can take care of us.
Shared responsibility, feeling that our actions depend,
not just on our own fate.
but the destinies of others, of all those around us.
And that we depend on them.
So, if we stop the “witch hunt”, to ask ourselves who is at fault, and why it all happened, rather ask ourselves what we can learn. I think we all have a lot to think about and actions to take.
Because with the cosmos and its laws, obviously, we have an excessive debt.
Reminding us of it with a high price, with a virus.”
-.-.-.—.-
Une Reflexion sur le Coronavirus par Raffaele Morelli psychiatre et psychothérepeut italien:
“Je crois que le cosmos a ca façon de rééquilibrer les choses est ses lois, quand celles-ci viennent á être trop bouleversées.
Le moment que nous vivons, plein d’anomalies et de paradoxes, fair réfléchir…
Dans une phase où le changement climatique, causé par les désastres environnementaux, a
atteint des niveaux inquiėtants.
D’abbord la chine, puis tant d’autres pays, sont en constrants au blocage; l’économie s’écroule,
mais la pollution diminue de manière considérable.
L’air s’améliore; on utilise un masque, mais on respire.
Dans un moment historique où, partout dans le monde, she réactivent certains idéologies et
politiques discriminatoires rappelant avec force un passé mesquin, un virus arrive, qui nous fait
expérimenter que, en un instant, nous povons aussi nous devenir les discriminés, les
ségrégués, ceux qu’on bloquent aix frontiéres, qui amènent les maladies.
Même si nous n’y sommes pour rien.
Même is nous sont blancs, occidentaux et que nous voyageons en première classe.
(complexe de toute puissance).
Dans une société fondée sur la productivité et la consommation, dans laquelle nous courons
tous 14 heures par jour après on ne sais pas bien porquoi, sans samede ni dimanche,
sans plus de pause sur le calandrier, tout á coup, le – STOP – arrive.
Tous à l’arrêt, á la maison, pendant des jours et des jours.
Á faire le compte d’un temps dont nous avons perdu la valeur.
dès qu’ill n’est plus mesurable
en argent, en profit.
Sait-en seulement encore quoi en faire?
Dans une période où l’éducation de nos propres enfants, par la force des choses, et souvent
déléguée á des figures et institutions diverses, le virus fermes les écoles et nous oblige á trouver
des solutions alternative á réunir les mamans et les papas avec votres propres enfants.
I’ll nous obliger á refaire une “famille”.
Dans une dimension où les rélations, la communication, la sociabilité se jouent essentiellement
dans ce non-espace du virtuel des résaux sociaux nous donnant l’illusion de la proximité,
le virus nous enlève la proximité,
celles qui et bien reréelle: personne ne doit se toucher,
pas de baisers, pas d’embrassades
de la distance, de le froid du non-contact.
Depuis quand avons-nous pris pour acquis ces gestes et leur significance?
Dans un climat sociale où penser à soi est devenu la régle,
le virus nous envoie un message clair:
la seule manière de nous en sortir, c’est la réciprocité, le sens de l’appartenance, la communauté
se sentir faire partie de quelque chose la plus grand.
donc il faux prendre soin
et qui peut prendre soin de nous.
La responsabilité partagée, sentir que de nos actions dépendent,
non pas seulement propres sort.
mais des sorts des autres, de tous ceux qui nous entourent.
Et que nous dépendons d’eux.
Alors, si nous arrêtons la “chasse aux sorciéres”, de nous demander à qui la faute, et pourquoi tout ça est arrivé, pour nous interroget plutôt sur ce que nous pouvons apprendre, je crois que nous avon’s tous beaucoup de matiére á réflexion et á agir.
Parce qu’avec le cosmos et ses lois,de manière évidente, nous avons une dette excesive.
Il nous le rapelle aux prix fort, avec une virus.”
digesthis 