I'm not one to use profanity in the public domain but in the case of the Coronavirus, yeah, I'm scared shitless about it. I've also been having a recently recurring thought on this whole roller coaster of a ride humanity has been forced to take. And my enduring question of late is "OK, so is this the end, of us"? Over reacting? Maybe, "alarmist" some may say, but I'm sure most would say "delusional". But hear me out. I personally think we're just at the very beginning of this 'thing'. I guess no-one wants to put a name on it, so I'll use the one I've come to use, extinction event. Bear with me.

Mini me...

I was born in 1965. Let's give me a little five year head-start for that carefree abandonment of infancy every child should have the rapture of experiencing. Since 1970 it's estimated that of 21,000 monitored populations across an eclectic mix of some 4,400 species of marine and terrestrial wildlife that their numbers have declined by an average of 68% between 1970 and 2016. In that time the only species really to have 'flourished' is man(kind). Sadly for the most part 'kind' tends to be the least employed adjective of mine when discussing the majority of accomplishments notched up by our species.

In the year of my birth, 1965, our little spinning rock had a total global human population of 'just' 3,339,583,597 inhabitants. Fast forward to our current point in time. Our global population in 2020 currently hovers around 7,794,798,739 I've witnessed a more than doubling of our species population in my lifetime. So how is it that the majority of the species we share our planet with are in free-fall decline, yet we humans have, in my lifetime, exploded with a 2.33x growth in numbers! Something doesn't add up unless you look at the simple basics. We're spreading in numbers, devouring and exploiting the resources of our planet at an ever accelerating pace in order to keep up with the demands our numbers place on said resources. An infinite demand on a finite commodity. Something's gotta give. And it has, 'Ma Nature' is pissed.

Take a quick look back into historical events of our planet, it has experienced mass extinctions in the past. There was one part missing from that equation though. Man. Let's talk dinosaurs. We all know they died out right. By all historical findings it was after the planet was hit by an asteroid that things really went pear shaped for Mr. T. Rex and his buddies. But it wasn't an overnight thing. According to this article in the Smithsonian Magazine from 2014 by Helen Thompson. It took somewhere in the region of 32,000years for the dinosaurs to die off after the Asteroid stuck Earth. So what's the problem? We've got plenty of time, right?

Methinks not. Given our track record, and it is a bit of a doozy, let's take this into some contrast with regards to deforestation. Our Earth is an estimated 4.6Bn years old. Let's scale that to 46yrs. That would mean us pesky humans have been in existence for just four hours, the industrial revolution started about one minute ago, and yet in that blink of an eye our species has destroyed more than half of the Worlds forests in just 30seconds. How's that for a milestone? In the words of Canadian astrophysicist Hubert Reeves "Man is the most insane of species. He worships an invisible God while destroying a visible nature. Unaware that the nature he is destroying is that very God he worships".

I honestly cannot see an end to the avarice of man. There is absolutely no apparent willingness as a whole to change the path we're on. In the face of a global pandemic a growing number of people are of the mind to ignore safety measures imposed in their best interests. All they want to do is head out, socialize, get hair cuts, go to work, earn money. And for what? To buy more shit they don't really need in the grand scale of things. I really cannot understand the anti-maskers. OK so virus cells may penetrate a mask, but it offers itself as a barrier that could slow down infection rates, and any barrier is good, you would think?

So the kicker to all of this in my mind is thus. I'm of the mind that this is just the beginning. We've seen this Coronavirus to not be a seasonal thing as we've now been in its grasp for pretty much one full year now. In this time it has pulsated with accelerated and reduced spurts throughout the globe, but it has never really dissipated for any number of months much the same as most Flu's have their seasonal impact. Covid-19 has simply just kept on trucking. Impacting now in excess of 34.6m individual cases with 1.06m deaths.

Some folks will argue the survival rate. Given the hard figures, that we know of regarding the number of affected and those who have succumbed to the virus the mortality rate stands at some 4% based on the 28,730,374 'closed cases'. There still remains 1% of the currently 8,013,975 active cases experiencing serious health conditions. It's a known fact that if you're unfortunate enough to contract the virus but are healthy with no known pre-existing health concerns the odds are more in your favor of surviving what can be for some quite a harrowing experience. That's a good thing though, right? Well that's a matter of opinion when you also consider the impact the Coronavirus has on what could be considered a healthy human specimen once that person has recovered from it.

So once infected and survived well you're set, out of the woods, home free? Sadly there have now been confirmed cases of reinfection. Whilst these numbers are low it does show that like seasonal flu's we are prone, or susceptible at least to reinfection, it shows that whilst this is yet a small number of cases that it is not impossible. Throughout the whole C-19 journey thus far we've been told that the most at risk folk are those with pre-existing health conditions. Particularly those that relate to Heart and Lung issues. So a healthy person contracts the virus, survives but with heart complications bought on by the viral infection. They then become reinfected and now have a pre-existing heart condition. A once healthy individual now becomes one of the 'at risk' categorized member of society.

How many times have you had flu in your lifetime? Do you think you could survive two, three or four bouts of Covid-19?

Devoid of the conspiracy theorists claims that this is a viral infection created in a laboratory there is every real indication that this indeed, as with most if not all other flu strains, has a zoonotic source, that is, it stems from wildlife. And there it is. In the scientific community it is highly suggested this is a viral pandemic with origins in China initially transported via contact with some element of wildlife, potentially intended as a source of sustenance that entered into its first human victim almost a year ago. 

In a nutshell. Mother Nature is pissed. She's endured millennia of abuse by the planet's most dangerous species, us, and this is her way of balancing the checks. Maybe even bitch slapping us into submission! My take on it all. This is the beginning. At this time those with pre-existing conditions will succumb to the virus. Those who survive will be left with pre-existing health concerns and who, when reinfection numbers start rising, will then become the next front line of 'at risk' individuals. It took the Dinosaurs 32,000years to kick the bucket. Given we'll probably overpopulate the planet, devour all it's resources and have wars over the last remaining water sources well before AD32002 there remains little hope for us.

Unless we can work together and figure this thing out, come to a solution for the betterment of mankind. But that, given our illustrious record to date, may well be a very tall order.

"Once destroyed, Mother Nature's beauty cannot be 'repurchased' at any price"

Ansel Adams