The nearness of nature to us all, despite the distance we try to put.
The planting of human superstructure in virgin soil with not one moment of consideration of the underlying ecosystem that has nurtured humans over a millennium. You cannot sterile nature out. When animal hosts for viruses and creepy crawlies at microbial levels disappear, when the easy routes to propagation disappear through ecosystem loss or mass slaughter, they will find a way to survive. Attach to a new host, say the dominant large mammal on the planet.
Wreak havoc with populations, civilizations, until a new stasis is found. That is the imperative of whatever balance has to sort itself out. Until antiquated things like centers do not hold and whole new planets must be found to infect.
Corpus habitus, de puncta contactus.
I was in Guimaras a few years back, on the isolated side. Walking the beach, very few signs of civilization in sight, a few fishing boats and huts. A couple resorts of the rustic variety and beach homes created by those with the wheels and means. Examining the exposed rocks volcanic rocks at low tide, full of intricate jags and edges, I noticed the imprints of mussels. Every single mussel had been pried off available rocks. There was not one mussel left and this was far from a city. Nature’s larder stripped bare is one sign that a symbiotic relationship has been lost. It is a short step from constant need and hunger to cities that grow seemingly without plan, ecosystems lost in a blip.
I can only imagine remote caves in the mountains where people find communities of bats to disrupt and destroy as more money percolates to the hands of those who can afford exotics for their supposed health benefits. What was reserved for truly dire situations, a relative with a serious illness, becomes a daily preventative. Bats in the soup… a relic of Great Leap Forward privations, now a symbol of status in the daily hot pot diner of life.
Cebu, Philippines 3/15/20
Wreak havoc with populations, civilizations, until a new stasis is found. That is the imperative of whatever balance has to sort itself out. Until antiquated things like centers do not hold and whole new planets must be found to infect.
Corpus habitus, de puncta contactus.
I was in Guimaras a few years back, on the isolated side. Walking the beach, very few signs of civilization in sight, a few fishing boats and huts. A couple resorts of the rustic variety and beach homes created by those with the wheels and means. Examining the exposed rocks volcanic rocks at low tide, full of intricate jags and edges, I noticed the imprints of mussels. Every single mussel had been pried off available rocks. There was not one mussel left and this was far from a city. Nature’s larder stripped bare is one sign that a symbiotic relationship has been lost. It is a short step from constant need and hunger to cities that grow seemingly without plan, ecosystems lost in a blip.
I can only imagine remote caves in the mountains where people find communities of bats to disrupt and destroy as more money percolates to the hands of those who can afford exotics for their supposed health benefits. What was reserved for truly dire situations, a relative with a serious illness, becomes a daily preventative. Bats in the soup… a relic of Great Leap Forward privations, now a symbol of status in the daily hot pot diner of life.
Cebu, Philippines 3/15/20
I believe that Covid 19 is a wake up call that we cannot build a shared global order on the tenets of unsustainable exploitation of resources and a trade carrot that will lead to exponentially greater resource stresses (biodiversity depletion, carbon footprint, yada yada). A pause to look around and consider whether the system of incentives built into the current system is the right one.
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