Prof. B L Kaul
“The second man to die of COVID-19 in Spain was Antonio Vieria Montiero Chairman of Spain’s largest bank “Santander”. He died alone in a hospital at the age of 73. After his death his daughter stated that they are a wealthy family and her father passed away alone, suffocating and looking for something free which is Air. His money stayed at home”- Sivaram Swamy.
These are revealing words of a knowledgeable Swami. The wealthy man died gasping for a breath of air which mankind has badly polluted. It reminds me of my own protected childhood in an unpolluted India of 1940’s and early 1950’s. As I grew up as an ecologist in 1970’s I realized that things were changing fast. The quality of air and water were deteriorating everywhere in the world including India. We had started to pay a price for development. In the name of development there was rampant destruction of forests, grasslands, mountains and valleys. Roads and railways were being built, concrete jungle had started coming up and black smoke was emanating from chimneys turning our skies dark. The developing world was blindly following the path chosen by the developed west. Human race was now following a self- destructive and suicidal course.There were words of caution coming from the wise and lip services paid by the capitalists and the politicians to rectify the damage that had already been done to the environment. The western world especially the Americans had already initiated damaging the environment.
Dr.Barry Commoner was an American Cell Biologist and a college professor. He was a leading ecologist among the founders of modern environmental movements. He published his book, “The Closing Circle”, in 1971 which coincided with the very beginning of Earth Day on April 22, 1970. In his book he warned the Americans that a society which does not follow the basic laws of ecology and nature is courting disaster and turmoil.
The world now is in an environmental crisis because the way ecosphere is being used to produce wealth is destructive of the ecosphere itself. The capitalist system of production, which the Chinese Communist Party and many others have blindly copied from the west is self-destructive and the human civilization is following a suicidal course. According to Dr. Barry Commoner “Capitalism is inherently anti-ecological.”. This line of thinking is being followed by most eco-socialists including Bernard Sanders and Naomi Klein who also believe that the capitalism is anti-ecological. India has had her own share of environmental activists notably Shivaram Karanth, Sunder Lal Bahugna, Medha Patkar, Maneka Gandhi, Sumaira Abdulali and Sunita Narain.
The now-famous four Laws of Ecology enunciated by Dr. Commoner are as follows.
* Everything is connected with everything else.
* Everything must go somewhere.
* Nature knows the Best.
* There is no such thing as a free lunch.
The last law is a quote that he has taken from nineteenth century Industrialist and philanthropist John Ruskin. It means there is a cost to everything and whatever appears free will be in a package(like buy one get one free).
The COVID-19 pandemic, also called Corona Virus from Wuhan, China was detected in late December 2019 and has affected the human population of the whole world.
At the time of writing there were 50.8 million confirmed cases worldwide: 33.1million recovered cases and 1.26 million fatalities. In India there were 8.59 million confirmed cases and 126,621 fatalities.
Ironically, COVID-19 pandemic presents us with an incredible example of how Dr. Commoners all Laws of Ecology apply to this now- International health scare. As is well known now Chinese wet markets are according to Chinese scientist Zhenzlog Si (as quoted on NPR)”the predominant food outlets for fresh produce and meat in Chinese cities. There are hundreds of such markets in large Chinese cities and a large variety of plants and animal products are for sale, including live animals kept in notoriously unhealthy spaces. Their excretions and illnesses are part of the overall market arena, which is visited by thousand of shoppers every day. Wet markets are an established and ingrained part of Chinese community and culture, and thus it is no surprise that diseases are now jumping from animals to humans and humans to humans.” This is how exactly the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) appeared in 2002 in China. It spread world wide within a few months although it was quickly contained. It should have served as a notice to mankind that there is possibility that new viral diseasesare jumping from animals to humans. Surprisingly WHO did not take it seriously and the wet markets in China continued to function.
According to Dr. Zenzlog Si eating wild animals is considered a symbol of wealth in China because they are rare and expensive. Wild animals are also considered more natural and nutritious compared to farm meat. If anything, Chinese wet markets are the very antithesis of Dr. Commoners laws of ecology. If “Nature knows best” then wild animals should be living wildly and not harvested en mass for consumption. “Everything must go somewhere” equates to the diseases, viruses, bacteria and blood which are produced by animals in captivity and being killed directly next to people working and shopping. “Everything is connected to everything else” sums up this whole truly unfortunate and inhumane situation resulting in illnesses, sufferings, scares, death and destruction of economies all over the world.
Although there is no treatment for COVID-19 yet most infected people are developing immunity and getting well thanks to the efforts of corona warriors which includes doctors, paramedics, nurses, ward boys, safai walas, police and para military forces. However, people who were already suffering from some comorbidities are finding it difficult to fight the infection effectively. Progress has been made in managing the disease since it was declared as a pandemic by WHO. The only hope to fight COVID-19 successfully is a vaccine. Efforts all over the world are on and it is hoped that a viable vaccine will be available in the first quarter of the next year. Till then we have not to lower our guard and will have to continue wearing masks, washing hands frequently and maintain social distance strictly. Most importantly as the festival season is arriving, we must abstain from using fire crackers and explosives etc which will further pollute the air. Our mega cities like Delhi are already heavily polluted.
Air pollution from an ecologist’s perspective is seriously impeding to fight the pandemic. According to Dr. Maria Neira, WHO Director of Public Health high levels of air pollution result in premature death of seven million people every year. Air pollution increases susceptibility and vulnerability to COVID-19 infections. Exposure to air pollution of the people already suffering from chronic lung diseases, lung cancer, cardio-vascular diseases, kidney and liver diseases increases their chances of getting infected by COVID-19. There are lessons to be learnt from our experiences and the whole world must unite to reduce pollution levels, follow laws of ecology and fight against diseases like COVID-19, SARS, MERS, Bird flu and many other diseases unknown till recently. We have to find ways and means to stop viruses and bacteria from jumping from wild life to humans. COVID-19 is an awful example how easy it is to go off the rails when humans don’t think and act like mother nature.
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