The following food for thought was brought on by a BBC conversation with British scientist James Lovelock on his 101 year with us and who says says population growth means something like the virus is "almost inevitable”
The Gaia hypothesis is a theory put forward, c.1972 by a British chemist, James Lovelock, and an American biologist, Lynn Margulis, that the living and the non-living matter defines and regulates conditions necessary for the continuance of life on this planet.
Earth or the biosphere is likened to a vast self-regulating single living organism.......
Consider the COVID-19 virus as Gaia's defensive system, an army of foot soldiers, conveying a strong message that our planet is sick and some remedial measures are necessary to restore its health.
At the moment, the biggest threats to the delicate balance that makes this planet habitable are human-caused climate change and the destruction of biodiversity. Scientists agree that if individuals, businesses, and governments don't take significant action within the next decade to curb emissions, the damage will be catastrophic.............
The novel coronavirus is estimated to have curbed carbon dioxide emissions in China by a quarter. More than 80,000 people in one of the world's biggest industrial polluters have been infected, causing refineries and factories to shut down, and slowing construction activities. …
https://theweek.com/articles/899439/coronavirus-environmental-wakeup-call
Beyond debatable scientific credibility, Gaia becomes a very handy philosophical metaphor. What Gaia's hypothesis could be telling us is that the current pandemic is nothing more than a defense mechanism for life on earth, a kind of antibody against an especially aggressive and toxic factor that predates the ecosystem: the human species in permanent demographic explosion.
The virus would be, in this daring hypothesis (since there have been other epidemics when our presence on the planet was much less predominant), a way of abruptly stopping the enormous pressure that our species exerts on the climate and natural disasters, which are increasingly frequent.
Biodiversity is traditionally defined as the variety of life on Earth in all its forms and it comprises the number of species, their genetic variation and the interaction of these lifeforms. However, from past few years the human-driven biodiversity loss are causing more severe and longer-lasting impacts........
Agriculture destroys biodiversity by converting natural habitats to intensely managed systems and by releasing pollutants, including greenhouse gases. Food value chains further amplify impacts including through energy use, transport and waste. The direct effects of urban growth on habitat loss are well understood:Building construction often results in habitat destruction and fragmentation. The rise of urbanization greatly reduced biodiversity when large areas of natural habitat are fragmented. …....
“The overwhelming evidence of the IPBES Global Assessment, from a wide range of different fields of knowledge, presents an ominous picture,” said IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson. “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”
“Ecosystems, species, wild populations, local varieties and breeds of domesticated plants and animals are shrinking, deteriorating or vanishing. The essential, interconnected web of life on Earth is getting smaller and increasingly frayed,” said Prof. Settele. “This loss is a direct result of human activity and constitutes a direct threat to human well-being in all regions of the world.”
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/
I am no academic or authority on the damage we humans are doing to this closed system on which we all live but reading the above it strikes me that perhaps this world wide virus which has forced us to reduce the ever increasing use of our limited resources is trying to tell is something. It seems to me that the biggest threat to our continuing existence is our own ever increasing population growth even as hundreds if not thousands of the species that share this planet with us die off. However our own species continue to expand exponentially with an increase of population each year of around 80 million. The deaths from covid so far being mere 700 thousand or so, that's no comfort to those who have lost loved ones to it but does perhaps put things in perspective.
