thenation--2020-04-03--The Coronavirus Reveals That the Stars Are Not Like Us

It was a scene right out of a movie—specifically , a dark comedy about an out-of-touch celebrity in the midst of a pandemic .
I ’ m talking about the gathering of a social media pitchfork mob after billionaire record producer David Geffen posted a photo of his quarantine confines : a sprawling superyacht estimated at some $ 590 million .
“ Sunset , last night…isolated in the Grenadines avoiding the virus , ” he wrote .
“ I ’ m hoping everybody is staying safe.
” It didn ’ t take long for Geffen ’ s post to earn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trending list , the algorithmic result of the thousands of responses expressing both outrage and ridicule .
Presumably surprised by how poorly his missive had been received , Geffen went into digital hiding , quietly setting his account to private before deleting it .
If there was ever a fourth wall dividing celebrities and the rest of us on social media , the coronavirus quarantine has broken it at least temporarily , providing an unvarnished—or at least slightly less mediated—glimpse into the lives of the rich , famous , and bored .
Celebrities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are speaking freely , and the result has been a decidedly mixed bag .
As with Geffen , some celebrities have unwittingly revealed themselves to be gloriously , almost parodically oblivious .
Vanessa Hudgens took to Instagram to let fans know that coronavirus deaths are “ terrible ” but also “ like , inevitable ?
” Jennifer Lopez , quarantined with celebrity paramour and reported presidential adviser Alex Rodriguez , posted an Instagram video of her son riding his hoverboard around the vast , immaculately manicured grounds of her mansion .
Evangeline Lilly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ some people value freedom over their lives , ” a decision suggesting she hasn ’ t fully thought through the impact on the lives of others , including her kids and immunocompromised , cancer-stricken father .
And Arnold Schwarzenegger offered cautionary words about the importance of social distancing in an off-the-cuff PSA that might have carried a bit more gravitas had he not been pulling on a cigar and sitting in a bubbling jacuzzi .
But a number of celebrities have made seemingly sincere and heartfelt efforts to provide solace .
Via @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offered a “ meditation and mantra to promote healing , ” Chris Martin and John Legend gave intimate concerts , and the Dropkick Murphys—unable to play their annual St. Patrick ’ s Day concert in Boston for the first time since 1996—gave a free live performance .
But others have made woeful miscalculations .
There was the schlock heard round the world from Gal Gadot and a chorus of her celebrity friends with their treacly rendition of John Lennon ’ s “ Imagine.
” What was surely meant as a unifying moment came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to readjust the spotlight the coronavirus had stolen from them .
The scene was made more cringeworthy by Gadot ’ s musing that she was “ feeling a bit philosophical ” after a few days of being trapped in her mansion .
“ This virus has affected the entire world .
Everyone .
It doesn ’ t matter who you are , where you ’ re from .
We ’ re all in this together.
” As she soaked in a bathtub full of rose-petal-strewn water , Madonna expressed a similar sentiment .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Covid-19 , the pop star said , “ is that it ’ s made us all equal in many ways.
” That ’ s a nice thought .
Unfortunately , it ’ s not true .
The backlash to this star-studded navel-gazing has come as the coronavirus brings into stark relief the inequities in our health care system .
Our headlines now include daily announcements from celebrities—Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson , Idris Elba , and multiple players on NBA teams—about their Covid-19 status .
In the meantime , the rest of us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even have access to those tests .
Wealthy politicians like Rand Paul , the first US senator to test positive for the virus , have also figured into the rich-versus-the-rest-of-us divide .
He repeatedly noted he was asymptomatic when tested , while others who were visibly sick have been refused testing , with sometimes fatal results .
A recent Reuters report documented this disparity .
“ At least 100 executives and other New Yorkers of means had easy access to testing , ” it stated .
“ These people paid a $ 5,000-a-year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in New York City.
” The New York Times noted that stars are “ used to receiving preferential treatment at Los Angeles medical centers ” and that “ many A-listers use LifeSpan , a private practice.
” Another firm , Private Health Management , has six-month plans available to those who can afford the $ 80,000 price .
These services are far out of reach for most of us , especially the 100 million Americans who can not work from home because they hold jobs in manufacturing , service , delivery , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been refreshing amid the high visibility of the chasm between the haves and have-nots is those celebs who have spoken directly to this disparity .
Britney Spears , who—let ’ s be real—none of us took for a Marx-Engels Reader type , shared an Instagram message from Brooklyn artist Mimi Zhu calling for wealth redistribution , complete with a three rose emoji sign-off .
( Three days earlier , Spears invited fans struggling with finances to “ DM me and I will help you out.
” ) Fran Drescher retweeted a call for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Capitalism has become another word for Ruling Class Elite !
When profit is at the expence [ sic ] of all things of true value , we got ta problem.
” And then there was Cardi B , who chastised fellow celebrities who “ have the luxury to pay $ 30- $ 40,000…to get tested and get treated ” and demanded that the government pay for testing because the current pandemic could have been “ prevented when they found out about this.
” The rapper lamented , “ The general public—people that work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ paychecks , the middle class , the poor…they ’ re not getting treated like…celebrities.
” Judging from the responses , it was a pitch-perfect pronouncement .
Particularly in a moment when many celebrities keep getting this , literally and figuratively , off-key .

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nation believes that helping readers stay informed about the impact of the coronavirus crisis is a form of public service. For that reason, this article, and all of our coronavirus coverage, is now free. Please subscribe to support our writers and staff, and stay healthy.
This article appears in the April 20/27, 2020 issue.
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It was a scene right out of a movie—specifically, a dark comedy about an out-of-touch celebrity in the midst of a pandemic. I’m talking about the gathering of a social media pitchfork mob after billionaire record producer David Geffen posted a photo of his quarantine confines: a sprawling superyacht estimated at some $590 million. “Sunset, last night…isolated in the Grenadines avoiding the virus,” he wrote. “I’m hoping everybody is staying safe.”
It didn’t take long for Geffen’s post to earn him a spot on Twitter’s trending list, the algorithmic result of the thousands of responses expressing both outrage and ridicule. Presumably surprised by how poorly his missive had been received, Geffen went into digital hiding, quietly setting his account to private before deleting it.
If there was ever a fourth wall dividing celebrities and the rest of us on social media, the coronavirus quarantine has broken it at least temporarily, providing an unvarnished—or at least slightly less mediated—glimpse into the lives of the rich, famous, and bored. Celebrities, left to their own devices, are speaking freely, and the result has been a decidedly mixed bag.
As with Geffen, some celebrities have unwittingly revealed themselves to be gloriously, almost parodically oblivious. Vanessa Hudgens took to Instagram to let fans know that coronavirus deaths are “terrible” but also “like, inevitable?” Jennifer Lopez, quarantined with celebrity paramour and reported presidential adviser Alex Rodriguez, posted an Instagram video of her son riding his hoverboard around the vast, immaculately manicured grounds of her mansion.
Evangeline Lilly said she won’t self-quarantine because “some people value freedom over their lives,” a decision suggesting she hasn’t fully thought through the impact on the lives of others, including her kids and immunocompromised, cancer-stricken father. And Arnold Schwarzenegger offered cautionary words about the importance of social distancing in an off-the-cuff PSA that might have carried a bit more gravitas had he not been pulling on a cigar and sitting in a bubbling jacuzzi.
But a number of celebrities have made seemingly sincere and heartfelt efforts to provide solace. Via Instagram, Lizzo played the flute and offered a “meditation and mantra to promote healing,” Chris Martin and John Legend gave intimate concerts, and the Dropkick Murphys—unable to play their annual St. Patrick’s Day concert in Boston for the first time since 1996—gave a free live performance. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
But others have made woeful miscalculations. There was the schlock heard round the world from Gal Gadot and a chorus of her celebrity friends with their treacly rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” What was surely meant as a unifying moment came off as vacuous self-indulgence from celebs attempting to readjust the spotlight the coronavirus had stolen from them. The scene was made more cringeworthy by Gadot’s musing that she was “feeling a bit philosophical” after a few days of being trapped in her mansion. “This virus has affected the entire world. Everyone. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from. We’re all in this together.” As she soaked in a bathtub full of rose-petal-strewn water, Madonna expressed a similar sentiment. “What’s wonderful” about Covid-19, the pop star said, “is that it’s made us all equal in many ways.” Current Issue View our current issue
That’s a nice thought. Unfortunately, it’s not true. The backlash to this star-studded navel-gazing has come as the coronavirus brings into stark relief the inequities in our health care system. Our headlines now include daily announcements from celebrities—Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Idris Elba, and multiple players on NBA teams—about their Covid-19 status. In the meantime, the rest of us await news of when we’ll even have access to those tests.
Wealthy politicians like Rand Paul, the first US senator to test positive for the virus, have also figured into the rich-versus-the-rest-of-us divide. He repeatedly noted he was asymptomatic when tested, while others who were visibly sick have been refused testing, with sometimes fatal results. A recent Reuters report documented this disparity. “At least 100 executives and other New Yorkers of means had easy access to testing,” it stated. “These people paid a $5,000-a-year membership fee for a medical concierge service in New York City.” The New York Times noted that stars are “used to receiving preferential treatment at Los Angeles medical centers” and that “many A-listers use LifeSpan, a private practice.” Another firm, Private Health Management, has six-month plans available to those who can afford the $80,000 price. These services are far out of reach for most of us, especially the 100 million Americans who cannot work from home because they hold jobs in manufacturing, service, delivery, and the gig economy.
What’s been refreshing amid the high visibility of the chasm between the haves and have-nots is those celebs who have spoken directly to this disparity. Britney Spears, who—let’s be real—none of us took for a Marx-Engels Reader type, shared an Instagram message from Brooklyn artist Mimi Zhu calling for wealth redistribution, complete with a three rose emoji sign-off. (Three days earlier, Spears invited fans struggling with finances to “DM me and I will help you out.”) Fran Drescher retweeted a call for a general strike, adding, “Capitalism has become another word for Ruling Class Elite! When profit is at the expence [sic] of all things of true value, we gotta problem.”
And then there was Cardi B, who chastised fellow celebrities who “have the luxury to pay $30-$40,000…to get tested and get treated” and demanded that the government pay for testing because the current pandemic could have been “prevented when they found out about this.” The rapper lamented, “The general public—people that work regular jobs, people that get regular paychecks, the middle class, the poor…they’re not getting treated like…celebrities.”
Judging from the responses, it was a pitch-perfect pronouncement. Particularly in a moment when many celebrities keep getting this, literally and figuratively, off-key.


thenation--2020-04-03--The Covid-19 Crisis Is Exposing Trump’s Criminality

The Signal : In the middle of a pandemic that is particularly lethal to those with impaired lung function , the Trump administration has rolled back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards .
The move will trigger a long legal fight , led by California , and signed onto by many other states ; but if it ultimately stands , environmentalists estimate that it will lead to a billion metric tons of additional carbon dioxide emissions , and the burning of an addition 80 billion gallons of gasoline .
In short , while Trump touts this move as an economic boon and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ battle against regulations , it ’ s guaranteed to further wreck the planet ’ s fragile climate and further pollute its already polluted air .
A reasonable administration would have pressed the pause button during a respiratory virus pandemic .
This administration saw the chaos and fear created by a wave of illness and death as a useful distraction to push through an unpopular regulatory change while attention was diverted .
Pardon my French here , but WTF ?
As the Covid-19 Crisis Deepens , Grassroots Organizers Take Action That ’ s as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Arizona from all over the country to extend the border wall .
This , despite the fact that in many states construction work is being pared back to slow the spread of Covid-19 , and despite the fact that rural Arizona is already posting high infection numbers .
Why let a little thing like the worst pandemic in a century stop work on Trump ’ s signature monument to xenophobia ?
As a result of this decision , thousands of workers are crowding into Arizona motels , and , when those are full @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in rented houses .
It ’ s as crazy as , say , refusing to reopen the enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act ’ s insurance exchange , so that millions of suddenly unemployed workers and their families will have the means to get tested and treated for coronavirus .
This despite the fact that the insurance companies themselves have been begging the administration to make it easier for people to enroll .
The only good news regarding the fuel efficiency rollback—which goes far beyond what even the most retrograde car companies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ backfire .
Last year , four large companies ( BMW , Ford , Honda , and Volkswagen ) sided with California in endorsing stricter standards .
Many more companies sided with the Trump administration—not because they wanted to eviscerate those standards but because they favored one national benchmark rather than two competing systems .
However , after the administration announced the scale of its rollback , some companies appeared ready to join California ’ s camp .
On a conference call with journalists after the rollback was announced , Mary Nichols , chair @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reported that Volvo was about to cast its lot with the four resisting companies , and that at least one other vehicle manufacturer was considering doing so .
Nichols believes this could be a watershed moment , the last hurrah of “ an old view ” and the moment when private companies and consumers join together to promote a cleaner , more efficient economy .
I hope Nichols is right .
Meanwhile , there ’ s a lot of distracting Noise coming out of DC .
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell had the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s failure to respond aggressively to the pandemic threat back in January and February , when he was downplaying the severity of the crisis .
And California GOP Representative Devin Nunes again showed his contempt for science by criticizing the closure of schools in his state .
That strategy didn ’ t turn out so well for Virginia ’ s Liberty University when Jerry Falwell Jr. brought back to campus his students , who promptly suffered a Covid-19 outbreak .
One can only imagine what H.L .
Mencken would have said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who care not a whit for the toll their malignant ignorance is taking .

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nation believes that helping readers stay informed about the impact of the coronavirus crisis is a form of public service. For that reason, this article, and all of our coronavirus coverage, is now free. Please subscribe to support our writers and staff, and stay healthy.
The Signal: In the middle of a pandemic that is particularly lethal to those with impaired lung function, the Trump administration has rolled back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards. The move will trigger a long legal fight, led by California, and signed onto by many other states; but if it ultimately stands, environmentalists estimate that it will lead to a billion metric tons of additional carbon dioxide emissions, and the burning of an addition 80 billion gallons of gasoline.
In short, while Trump touts this move as an economic boon and counts it as a success in his battle against regulations, it’s guaranteed to further wreck the planet’s fragile climate and further pollute its already polluted air.
A reasonable administration would have pressed the pause button during a respiratory virus pandemic. This administration saw the chaos and fear created by a wave of illness and death as a useful distraction to push through an unpopular regulatory change while attention was diverted.
Pardon my French here, but WTF? Related Articles California Is Fighting Trump for Clean Air Sasha Abramsky As the Covid-19 Crisis Deepens, Grassroots Organizers Take Action Sasha Abramsky
That’s as crazy as bringing construction crews into southern Arizona from all over the country to extend the border wall. This, despite the fact that in many states construction work is being pared back to slow the spread of Covid-19, and despite the fact that rural Arizona is already posting high infection numbers. Why let a little thing like the worst pandemic in a century stop work on Trump’s signature monument to xenophobia? As a result of this decision, thousands of workers are crowding into Arizona motels, and, when those are full, living many workers to a room in rented houses.
It’s as crazy as, say, refusing to reopen the enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchange, so that millions of suddenly unemployed workers and their families will have the means to get tested and treated for coronavirus. This despite the fact that the insurance companies themselves have been begging the administration to make it easier for people to enroll.
The only good news regarding the fuel efficiency rollback—which goes far beyond what even the most retrograde car companies have been asking for—is that it may backfire. Last year, four large companies (BMW, Ford, Honda, and Volkswagen) sided with California in endorsing stricter standards. Many more companies sided with the Trump administration—not because they wanted to eviscerate those standards but because they favored one national benchmark rather than two competing systems. However, after the administration announced the scale of its rollback, some companies appeared ready to join California’s camp. On a conference call with journalists after the rollback was announced, Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, reported that Volvo was about to cast its lot with the four resisting companies, and that at least one other vehicle manufacturer was considering doing so. Nichols believes this could be a watershed moment, the last hurrah of “an old view” and the moment when private companies and consumers join together to promote a cleaner, more efficient economy.
I hope Nichols is right. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of distracting Noise coming out of DC. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell had the gall to blame the impeachment process for Trump’s failure to respond aggressively to the pandemic threat back in January and February, when he was downplaying the severity of the crisis. And California GOP Representative Devin Nunes again showed his contempt for science by criticizing the closure of schools in his state. That strategy didn’t turn out so well for Virginia’s Liberty University when Jerry Falwell Jr. brought back to campus his students, who promptly suffered a Covid-19 outbreak.
One can only imagine what H.L. Mencken would have said of such charlatans and know-nothing opportunists, who care not a whit for the toll their malignant ignorance is taking.


thenation--2020-04-03--American Un-Exceptionalism in the Time of Coronavirus

The appalling response to the coronavirus pandemic on the part of the administration , Congress , corporations , and certain segments of the public should be cause for a serious reconsideration of our priorities as a country .
The current crisis highlights , as little else has , a lack of social cohesion among Americans : Clearly , we are not all in this together .
The startling lack of civic solidarity has only been exacerbated by the stunning incompetence of the Trump administration .
To discuss the current crisis , I spoke to author and photographer Ann Jones .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Quincy Institute , is an astute observer of American decline , having chronicled our misadventures in Afghanistan , while at the same time documenting the political and social dysfunction that plagues us at home .
Her 2016 Nation essay “ After I Lived in Norway , America Felt Backward ” should be required reading for those searching for an alternative to the economic and social policies that have failed us .
I began by asking Jones , who recently returned to the United States from Norway , how she thinks this country is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our European counterparts .
James Carden : You just returned from Norway by way of Boston ’ s Logan airport .
Can you talk about your initial impressions of the respective American and Norwegian responses to the crisis upon landing ?
Ann Jones : The day after Trump ’ s March 11 announcement of a “ travel ban ” from Europe , anxious Americans abroad felt an urgency to get home before Trump did something worse .
So , like the frantic parents of US students abroad , I paid top dollar for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ On the second leg of that journey , from London , I was wedged among some 200 students , including many coming from Italy , for a seven-hour flight to Boston .
There , under the low ceiling of Logan ’ s cramped arrivals room , we spent a few more hours together , inching along—more a mob than a line—to the passport controllers , and then one at a time to a small room for an official “ Screening.
” I ’ m an old woman—a member of an endangered group—and by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But the masked woman in charge asked me no questions .
Indeed , she seemed scared to inquire about my condition ; she just gestured to some pamphlets on a table and told me to go home and take my temperature .
That was the entire “ screening.
” I had left Norway , a country where the government and the people were taking the threat of pandemic seriously , with most already working or studying from home , and yet I returned to a country that seemed to be doing things upside-down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then issues arbitrary , alarming , pointless orders .
Thousands of returning Americans , some of them probably ill , are closely confined together for up to eight hours at 13 designated US airports—perfect percolators of contagion—only to collect a pamphlet and disappear to unknown destinations all across the country .
Who were we ?
How many of us already carried the virus ?
And what ’ s become of us ?
The whole irrational operation came from the top down , and what happens to the people at the bottom , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Today the biggest difference between the US and Norway , as both countries struggle against the pandemic , is this : Norway is not in chaos , and Norwegians are not desperate .
JC : I get a feeling that the current moment will not redound to our credit as a country .
Here I have in mind the college kids who insisted on enjoying their spring break , consequences be damned ( though they are hardly the only people putting self-interest ahead of public safety ) .
And then there are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Senators Burr , Feinstein , Loeffler , and Inhofe ( and they too were far from alone ) by profiting from insider knowledge of the coming pandemic .
The spring breakers and the senators seem to share a complete lack of a sense of obligation to their fellow citizens .
And I worry that theirs has become a very American way of thinking : Because I have a right to do this , nothing will stop me from doing it .
That line of thinking evinces a total lack of regard for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ toward others .
How would you compare it to what you ’ ve experienced living in Norway ?
AJ : We have a long history of disguising grasping self-interest as the “ right to individual freedom.
” A century ago , in America ’ s first Gilded Age , the Norwegian-American economist Thorstein Veblen labeled filthy-rich captains of industry as antisocial greedy “ predators ” who enrich themselves off the labor of others .
Those kids at the beach and the stock-dumping senators are classic Americans , living the venerable American Dream , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ civic responsibility or “ obligation , ” much less any sense of community .
Norway , on the other hand , created itself as an egalitarian social democracy , and that makes all the difference .
In Norway , for the most part , self-interest and the public interest coincide .
Like the US , it ’ s a capitalist country .
But unlike the US , Norway regulates capitalist ventures and is the major shareholder in some private enterprises of public concern .
Wages and working conditions are not dictated by billionaire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ national confederations of enterprise and labor , for labor retains the power to set the standards of work .
To ensure equality—without which democracy is not possible—the government also oversees a universal welfare system .
It collects high but fair progressive income taxes to support universal health care , almost-free education from preschool through university , full unemployment compensation , affordable housing , public transport , and the like .
The result is one of the most equal , democratic , highly educated , innovative , modern , technically advanced , and happy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may have heard that this remarkable success owes itself to Norway ’ s “ oil wealth ” drawn , since the 1970s , from the North Sea .
It ’ s a tale Conservative columnists rerun to dismiss the obvious advantages of a welfare state .
In fact , Norway ’ s oil money is stashed in a sovereign wealth fund , officially the Government Pension Fund , now valued above $ 1 trillion .
With only 4 percent of a year ’ s income available to the government in case of emergency—and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ producers until 2017 , when it began a popular transition to investments in solar and wind power .
And here ’ s a fact that these Conservative columnists never mention : According to Norway ’ s Ministry of Finance , the real source of new money expanding the welfare state was not oil but the income taxes paid by women who entered the workforce , on a par with men , just about the time the oil came in .
The welfare state , in turn , enabled women by taking on some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : health care , child care , elder care , and primary education .
Norwegians liked these arrangements so much that by 1981 they chose their first woman prime minister , Gru Harlem Bruntland , who later went on to head the World Health Organization .
Over the last few days , the oil fund has become a bone of contention in Norway , with the government tapping into the surplus to meet the coronavirus emergency and economists protesting that the emergency should be met by additional progressive taxation so the fund would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ providing old-age pensions to future generations .
These days , Norwegian enterprises—including the oil industry—feel the same pain as those in other nations afflicted by Covid-19 .
Shops close , businesses struggle , the currency loses value .
But in Norway , the sick are well cared for by the national health service , workers are still paid by employers or through national insurance , and , in a changing job market , some workers may choose to be retrained at public expense .
Few , if any , are homeless .
None @ @ @ @ @ @ @ welfare system , Norwegians can focus on family , friends , the future : what matters most to them .
Incidentally , the current government is not Communist or Socialist , as Americans may fear , but Conservative and led by women .
( When Trump met Prime Minister Erna Solberg in 2018 , he marveled that she spoke English , and then announced the first delivery on Norway ’ s $ 10 billion purchase of American fighter jets : F-35s and F-52s , though the latter exist only in the video game @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) As conditions worsen around the world , Solberg has asked Norwegian students abroad to consider coming home .
And on March 14—the very day I left Norway—the Norwegian University of Science and Technology urged the return of its students studying in countries “ with poorly developed health services and infrastructure…like the United States.
” JC : Overall , I think it ’ s fair to say the response to the economic crisis brought about by the pandemic has been wholly inadequate to the moment because both parties are wedded to zombie economic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Democrats to neoliberalism .
What is preventing Americans from taking even modest steps , such as those proposed by Senator Sanders , in the direction of social democracy ?
AJ : I wouldn ’ t characterize all Democrats that way .
Bernie Sanders , Elizabeth Warren , and others fight as best they can for the interests of the common people , the forgotten poor , the folks on the bottom .
But what stands in their way is the power of the plutocrats .
Why should we be surprised ?
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corporations a decade ago with the outrageous Citizens United decision .
Four years later , political scientists Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page concluded , unsurprisingly , that US government policy is shaped by “ economic elites ” —Thorstein Veblen ’ s “ predators ” —while ordinary Americans have “ essentially no influence over what the government does.
” Too many of our so-called “ representatives ” are captive not merely to ideology but to their donors .
JC : Pivoting to foreign policy for a moment : Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ White House press conference on March 20 was to “ assure ” the American people that Iran was still under unilateral American sanctions ( thereby preventing it from receiving sorely needed medical supplies from abroad ) .
It seems the pandemic has done nothing to stop Trump and Pompeo from pursuing a childish , vindictive foreign policy .
What do Europeans generally think about the conceit of American leadership in light of our actions ?
AJ : Well , this is a projection of Trump ’ s “ character ” onto his so-called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he ’ s a childish , vindictive man who inflates himself at the expense of others .
He just cut a promised billion dollars in aid to Afghanistan as well .
None of our traditional allies in Europe look to the US for leadership anymore , though right-wing dictators around the world have a certain exploitative affinity with Trump .
But the European response is not simple : On one hand , he ’ s a laughingstock , but he also evokes powerful memories of the rise of fascism .
Norway , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the Second World War , and Norwegians have not forgotten their American ally .
A statue of Franklin Delano Roosevelt still graces Oslo ’ s harbor .
But I think it ’ s fair to say that many of my Norwegian friends looking at our government today are both appalled and wary .
JC : Nearly a decade ago , the late historian of Europe Tony Judt observed that we are a country “ in decline , but burdened with the rhetoric of endless possibility : a dangerous combination , since it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ angry that so much seems amiss , but not yet frightened enough to do something about it.
” While it seems we are still in the early days of the crisis , I suspect that not even this will shake us out of our collective slumber .
Do you share this pessimism ?
AJ : Yes , I am pessimistic , but I see things a little differently .
I don ’ t fault ordinary Americans for confusion or inaction or collective slumber .
I blame the members of the predatory upper class @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but also the state and imposed their will on the rest of us .
In the First Gilded Age , Thorstein Veblen described the result this way : Ordinary Americans , taught to aim for success yet deprived of education , health care , a living wage , affordable housing , job security , and self-respect , learn to blame themselves for their “ failure.
” Still , worn out as they are , scarcely recalling how their labor leaders were shot down or strung up , their unions crushed , they wouldn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ class .
They want to climb up into it .
That steep road is blocked .
So some look for an alternative path .
And some will find it at a rally , under those flashy , loud , bright-red MAGA hats .

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nation believes that helping readers stay informed about the impact of the coronavirus crisis is a form of public service. For that reason, this article, and all of our coronavirus coverage, is now free. Please subscribe to support our writers and staff, and stay healthy.
The appalling response to the coronavirus pandemic on the part of the administration, Congress, corporations, and certain segments of the public should be cause for a serious reconsideration of our priorities as a country.
The current crisis highlights, as little else has, a lack of social cohesion among Americans: Clearly, we are not all in this together. The startling lack of civic solidarity has only been exacerbated by the stunning incompetence of the Trump administration.
To discuss the current crisis, I spoke to author and photographer Ann Jones.
Jones, a Distinguished Fellow at the Quincy Institute, is an astute observer of American decline, having chronicled our misadventures in Afghanistan, while at the same time documenting the political and social dysfunction that plagues us at home. Her 2016 Nation essay “After I Lived in Norway, America Felt Backward” should be required reading for those searching for an alternative to the economic and social policies that have failed us.
I began by asking Jones, who recently returned to the United States from Norway, how she thinks this country is handling the crisis, particularly compared to our European counterparts.
James Carden: You just returned from Norway by way of Boston’s Logan airport. Can you talk about your initial impressions of the respective American and Norwegian responses to the crisis upon landing?
Ann Jones: The day after Trump’s March 11 announcement of a “travel ban” from Europe, anxious Americans abroad felt an urgency to get home before Trump did something worse. So, like the frantic parents of US students abroad, I paid top dollar for an inflated ticket home from Norway. On the second leg of that journey, from London, I was wedged among some 200 students, including many coming from Italy, for a seven-hour flight to Boston. There, under the low ceiling of Logan’s cramped arrivals room, we spent a few more hours together, inching along—more a mob than a line—to the passport controllers, and then one at a time to a small room for an official “Screening.” I’m an old woman—a member of an endangered group—and by that time I was fairly exhausted. But the masked woman in charge asked me no questions. Indeed, she seemed scared to inquire about my condition; she just gestured to some pamphlets on a table and told me to go home and take my temperature. That was the entire “screening.” Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
I had left Norway, a country where the government and the people were taking the threat of pandemic seriously, with most already working or studying from home, and yet I returned to a country that seemed to be doing things upside-down. Here, the president lies and then issues arbitrary, alarming, pointless orders. Thousands of returning Americans, some of them probably ill, are closely confined together for up to eight hours at 13 designated US airports—perfect percolators of contagion—only to collect a pamphlet and disappear to unknown destinations all across the country. Who were we? How many of us already carried the virus? And what’s become of us? Current Issue View our current issue
The whole irrational operation came from the top down, and what happens to the people at the bottom, the top does not seem to care about. Today the biggest difference between the US and Norway, as both countries struggle against the pandemic, is this: Norway is not in chaos, and Norwegians are not desperate.
JC: I get a feeling that the current moment will not redound to our credit as a country. Here I have in mind the college kids who insisted on enjoying their spring break, consequences be damned (though they are hardly the only people putting self-interest ahead of public safety). And then there are the accusations of inappropriate stock trading by Senators Burr, Feinstein, Loeffler, and Inhofe (and they too were far from alone) by profiting from insider knowledge of the coming pandemic.
The spring breakers and the senators seem to share a complete lack of a sense of obligation to their fellow citizens. And I worry that theirs has become a very American way of thinking: Because I have a right to do this, nothing will stop me from doing it. That line of thinking evinces a total lack of regard for the idea that we also have an obligation toward others. How would you compare it to what you’ve experienced living in Norway?
AJ: We have a long history of disguising grasping self-interest as the “right to individual freedom.” A century ago, in America’s first Gilded Age, the Norwegian-American economist Thorstein Veblen labeled filthy-rich captains of industry as antisocial, greedy “predators” who enrich themselves off the labor of others. Those kids at the beach and the stock-dumping senators are classic Americans, living the venerable American Dream, which has nothing whatsoever to do with civic responsibility or “obligation,” much less any sense of community.
Norway, on the other hand, created itself as an egalitarian social democracy, and that makes all the difference. In Norway, for the most part, self-interest and the public interest coincide. Like the US, it’s a capitalist country. But unlike the US, Norway regulates capitalist ventures and is the major shareholder in some private enterprises of public concern. Wages and working conditions are not dictated by billionaire owners but negotiated once a year by national confederations of enterprise and labor, for labor retains the power to set the standards of work. To ensure equality—without which democracy is not possible—the government also oversees a universal welfare system. It collects high but fair progressive income taxes to support universal health care, almost-free education from preschool through university, full unemployment compensation, affordable housing, public transport, and the like. The result is one of the most equal, democratic, highly educated, innovative, modern, technically advanced, and happy societies on the planet.
Yet you may have heard that this remarkable success owes itself to Norway’s “oil wealth” drawn, since the 1970s, from the North Sea. It’s a tale Conservative columnists rerun to dismiss the obvious advantages of a welfare state. In fact, Norway’s oil money is stashed in a sovereign wealth fund, officially the Government Pension Fund, now valued above $1 trillion. With only 4 percent of a year’s income available to the government in case of emergency—and rarely used—the fund invested largely in oil producers until 2017, when it began a popular transition to investments in solar and wind power.
And here’s a fact that these Conservative columnists never mention: According to Norway’s Ministry of Finance, the real source of new money expanding the welfare state was not oil but the income taxes paid by women who entered the workforce, on a par with men, just about the time the oil came in. The welfare state, in turn, enabled women by taking on some of their traditional jobs in the home: health care, child care, elder care, and primary education. Norwegians liked these arrangements so much that by 1981 they chose their first woman prime minister, Gro Harlem Bruntland, who later went on to head the World Health Organization. Over the last few days, the oil fund has become a bone of contention in Norway, with the government tapping into the surplus to meet the coronavirus emergency and economists protesting that the emergency should be met by additional progressive taxation so the fund would be preserved for its original intention: providing old-age pensions to future generations.
These days, Norwegian enterprises—including the oil industry—feel the same pain as those in other nations afflicted by Covid-19. Shops close, businesses struggle, the currency loses value. But in Norway, the sick are well cared for by the national health service, workers are still paid by employers or through national insurance, and, in a changing job market, some workers may choose to be retrained at public expense. Few, if any, are homeless. None will go hungry. Covered by the welfare system, Norwegians can focus on family, friends, the future: what matters most to them.
Incidentally, the current government is not Communist or Socialist, as Americans may fear, but Conservative and led by women. (When Trump met Prime Minister Erna Solberg in 2018, he marveled that she spoke English, and then announced the first delivery on Norway’s $10 billion purchase of American fighter jets: F-35s and F-52s, though the latter exist only in the video game Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.) As conditions worsen around the world, Solberg has asked Norwegian students abroad to consider coming home. And on March 14—the very day I left Norway—the Norwegian University of Science and Technology urged the return of its students studying in countries “with poorly developed health services and infrastructure…like the United States.”
JC: Overall, I think it’s fair to say the response to the economic crisis brought about by the pandemic has been wholly inadequate to the moment because both parties are wedded to zombie economic doctrines: the GOP to libertarianism and the Democrats to neoliberalism. What is preventing Americans from taking even modest steps, such as those proposed by Senator Sanders, in the direction of social democracy?
AJ: I wouldn’t characterize all Democrats that way. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and others fight as best they can for the interests of the common people, the forgotten poor, the folks on the bottom. But what stands in their way is the power of the plutocrats. Why should we be surprised? The Roberts Supreme Court handed power to the corporations a decade ago with the outrageous Citizens United decision. Four years later, political scientists Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page concluded, unsurprisingly, that US government policy is shaped by “economic elites”—Thorstein Veblen’s “predators”—while ordinary Americans have “essentially no influence over what the government does.” Too many of our so-called “representatives” are captive not merely to ideology but to their donors.
JC: Pivoting to foreign policy for a moment: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s first order of business at the White House press conference on March 20 was to “assure” the American people that Iran was still under unilateral American sanctions (thereby preventing it from receiving sorely needed medical supplies from abroad). It seems the pandemic has done nothing to stop Trump and Pompeo from pursuing a childish, vindictive foreign policy. What do Europeans generally think about the conceit of American leadership in light of our actions?
AJ: Well, this is a projection of Trump’s “character” onto his so-called foreign policy. Anyone can see that he’s a childish, vindictive man who inflates himself at the expense of others. He just cut a promised billion dollars in aid to Afghanistan as well. None of our traditional allies in Europe look to the US for leadership anymore, though right-wing dictators around the world have a certain exploitative affinity with Trump. But the European response is not simple: On one hand, he’s a laughingstock, but he also evokes powerful memories of the rise of fascism. Norway, of course, was subjected to Nazi occupation during the Second World War, and Norwegians have not forgotten their American ally. A statue of Franklin Delano Roosevelt still graces Oslo’s harbor. But I think it’s fair to say that many of my Norwegian friends looking at our government today are both appalled and wary.
JC: Nearly a decade ago, the late historian of Europe Tony Judt observed that we are a country “in decline, but burdened with the rhetoric of endless possibility: a dangerous combination, since it encourages inertia…. Americans are confused and angry that so much seems amiss, but not yet frightened enough to do something about it.” While it seems we are still in the early days of the crisis, I suspect that not even this will shake us out of our collective slumber. Do you share this pessimism?
AJ: Yes, I am pessimistic, but I see things a little differently. I don’t fault ordinary Americans for confusion or inaction or collective slumber. I blame the members of the predatory upper class who have bought not only the marketplace but also the state and imposed their will on the rest of us. In the first Gilded Age, Thorstein Veblen described the result this way:
…the institution of a leisure class acts to make the lower classes conservative by withdrawing from them as much as it may of the means of sustenance and so reducing their consumption, and consequently their available energy, to such a point as to make them incapable of the effort required for the learning and adoption of new habits of thought.
Ordinary Americans, taught to aim for success yet deprived of education, health care, a living wage, affordable housing, job security, and self-respect, learn to blame themselves for their “failure.” Still, worn out as they are, scarcely recalling how their labor leaders were shot down or strung up, their unions crushed, they wouldn’t dream of overthrowing the ruling class. They want to climb up into it. That steep road is blocked. So some look for an alternative path. And some will find it at a rally, under those flashy, loud, bright-red MAGA hats.
A previous version of this article misspelled the name of former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Bruntland.


thenation--2020-04-03--We’re Going to Need a Bigger Bailout

We’re Going to Need a Bigger Bailout

As US deaths from the coronavirus soared past 2,000 , and skyrocketing unemployment claims crashed state websites , Congress passed the largest economic emergency package in history .
Though absolutely necessary , the legislation is also , as Republican Senator Ben Sasse , inspired by his Vermont colleague Bernie Sanders , put it , “ a big crap sandwich.
” Billed as a $ 2 trillion package , it will actually shovel some $ 6 trillion toward countering the economic collapse—and that still won ’ t be enough .
It could have been worse .
Senate Democrats strengthened unemployment insurance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them for longer and adding $ 600 a week to current state levels .
They also targeted funds for hospitals and medical supplies—bizarrely absent from the Republican draft—and increased aid to schools , states , and localities .
But don ’ t be fooled .
Beyond these appetizers lies a banquet for corporate predators .
The bill provides $ 500 billion as a backstop for the Federal Reserve to pump trillions of dollars into banks and corporations .
With that , the latter will pocket over 80 percent of the total package , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 8 percent .
States , localities , hospitals , and schools will be left with even less .
Democrats revolted against giving Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin total discretion over the package , creating a special inspector general and an oversight committee ( which President Trump later said he ’ d ignore ) .
Progressives had hoped to use this crisis to impose sensible conditions on corporations .
Some weak restrictions on executive pay and layoffs survived , along with token forgiveness of interest on student loans and some mortgage protections .
But the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bailed-out companies came with Mnuchin ’ s authority to waive them .
Corporate predators , however , got a pass .
The Fed will flood banks with money—which corporations can then use to finance mergers , take over distressed rivals , and lard up on debt .
Wall Street can use the crisis to increase concentration , not competition , adding to the country ’ s already obscene inequality .
The Democratic majority in the House failed to pass a bold bill that would have forced the Senate ’ s hand .
Instead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Mnuchin , the House waited for Senate Republicans to unveil their version .
Eventually the House offered marker legislation—a short bill aimed at staking out a position—too late to have any real impact .
Pelosi let Republican senators drive the debate , putting Senate Democrats in the impossible position of delaying help to the American people in order to gain sensible concessions .
But a more aggressive strategy would still have faced formidable obstacles .
While the GOP controls the Senate and the White House , Wall Street effectively controls the Fed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ create and distribute money , is surely the most powerful institution in a fiscal crisis .
The failure of neoliberalism has expanded the alternatives , but market fundamentalism , backed by corporate lobbies , still dominates .
The Stimulus Plan That We Need Now The debate , however , isn ’ t over .
As the pandemic and the economic collapse spread , Congress will have to act again .
Far greater support for states and localities—all now headed into crippling budget crises—is imperative .
Extending paid sick leave and funding voting by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as are further payments to individuals and continued protection against foreclosures and evictions .
House progressives are already working on these elements for the next legislation .
This time , Democrats must force the debate .
The public should get equity in return for aid so taxpayers can benefit from the upside of any rescue .
Medicare should cover all coronavirus testing and treatment costs—an obvious step toward Medicare for All .
Forgiveness of student loans , provisions for work sharing , and more must be on the table .
Crisis legislation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the crisis deepens , the response must get bolder , making the debate , and the alternatives , clearer .

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nation believes that helping readers stay informed about the impact of the coronavirus crisis is a form of public service. For that reason, this article, and all of our coronavirus coverage, is now free. Please subscribe to support our writers and staff, and stay healthy.
This article appears in the April 20/27, 2020 issue.
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As US deaths from the coronavirus soared past 2,000, and skyrocketing unemployment claims crashed state websites, Congress passed the largest economic emergency package in history. Though absolutely necessary, the legislation is also, as Republican Senator Ben Sasse, inspired by his Vermont colleague Bernie Sanders, put it, “a big crap sandwich.” Billed as a $2 trillion package, it will actually shovel some $6 trillion toward countering the economic collapse—and that still won’t be enough.
It could have been worse. Senate Democrats strengthened unemployment insurance for laid-off workers, covering more of them for longer and adding $600 a week to current state levels. They also targeted funds for hospitals and medical supplies—bizarrely absent from the Republican draft—and increased aid to schools, states, and localities.
But don’t be fooled. Beyond these appetizers lies a banquet for corporate predators. The bill provides $500 billion as a backstop for the Federal Reserve to pump trillions of dollars into banks and corporations. With that, the latter will pocket over 80 percent of the total package, while workers and families will get about 8 percent. States, localities, hospitals, and schools will be left with even less.
Democrats revolted against giving Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin total discretion over the package, creating a special inspector general and an oversight committee (which President Trump later said he’d ignore). Progressives had hoped to use this crisis to impose sensible conditions on corporations. Some weak restrictions on executive pay and layoffs survived, along with token forgiveness of interest on student loans and some mortgage protections. But the provisions for a public equity stake in bailed-out companies came with Mnuchin’s authority to waive them. Current Issue View our current issue
Corporate predators, however, got a pass. The Fed will flood banks with money—which corporations can then use to finance mergers, take over distressed rivals, and lard up on debt. Wall Street can use the crisis to increase concentration, not competition, adding to the country’s already obscene inequality.
The Democratic majority in the House failed to pass a bold bill that would have forced the Senate’s hand. Instead, while Speaker Nancy Pelosi negotiated backstage with Mnuchin, the House waited for Senate Republicans to unveil their version. Eventually the House offered marker legislation—a short bill aimed at staking out a position—too late to have any real impact. Pelosi let Republican senators drive the debate, putting Senate Democrats in the impossible position of delaying help to the American people in order to gain sensible concessions.
But a more aggressive strategy would still have faced formidable obstacles. While the GOP controls the Senate and the White House, Wall Street effectively controls the Fed, which, with its power to create and distribute money, is surely the most powerful institution in a fiscal crisis. The failure of neoliberalism has expanded the alternatives, but market fundamentalism, backed by corporate lobbies, still dominates. Covid Stimulus The Stimulus Plan That We Need Now Mike Konczal
The debate, however, isn’t over. As the pandemic and the economic collapse spread, Congress will have to act again. Far greater support for states and localities—all now headed into crippling budget crises—is imperative. Extending paid sick leave and funding voting by mail to secure elections are both vital, as are further payments to individuals and continued protection against foreclosures and evictions. House progressives are already working on these elements for the next legislation. This time, Democrats must force the debate.
The public should get equity in return for aid so taxpayers can benefit from the upside of any rescue. Medicare should cover all coronavirus testing and treatment costs—an obvious step toward Medicare for All. Forgiveness of student loans, provisions for work sharing, and more must be on the table.
Crisis legislation reflects the balance of power. As the crisis deepens, the response must get bolder, making the debate, and the alternatives, clearer.


thenation--2020-04-03--Rethinking Our Relationship to the Natural World After Covid-19

As the novel coronavirus sweeps across the planet , leaving death and mayhem in its wake , many theories are being expounded to explain its ferocity .
One , widely circulated within right-wing conspiracy circles , is that it originated as a biological weapon developed at a secret Chinese military lab in the city of Wuhan that somehow ( perhaps intentionally ? )
escaped into the civilian population .
Although that “ theory ” has been thoroughly debunked , President Trump and his acolytes continue to call Covid-19 the “ China Virus , ” the “ Wuhan Virus , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” claiming its global spread was the result of an inept and secretive Chinese government response .
Scientists , by and large , believe the virus originated in bats and was transmitted to humans by wildlife sold at a Wuhan seafood market .
But perhaps there ’ s another far more ominous possibility to consider : that this is one of Mother Nature ’ s ways of resisting humanity ’ s assault on her essential life systems .
Let ’ s be clear : This pandemic is a world-shattering phenomenon of massive proportions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of thousands of people across the planet , killing more than 40,000 of them , but it ’ s brought the global economy to a virtual standstill , potentially crushing millions of businesses , large and small , while putting tens of millions , or possibly hundreds of millions , of people out of work .
In the past , disasters of this magnitude have toppled empires , triggered mass rebellions , and caused widespread famine and starvation .
This upheaval , too , will produce widespread misery and imperil the survival of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came to view such calamities as manifestations of the fury of gods incensed by human disrespect for and mistreatment of their universe , the natural world .
Today , educated people generally dismiss such notions , but scientists have recently been discovering that human impacts on the environment , especially the burning of fossil fuels , are producing feedback loops causing increasingly severe harm to communities across the globe , in the form of extreme storms , persistent droughts , massive wildfires , and recurring heat waves of an ever deadlier sort .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” “ non-linear events , ” and “ tipping points ” —the sudden and irreversible collapse of vital ecological systems with far-ranging , highly destructive consequences for humanity .
Evidence for such tipping points is growing—for example in the unexpectedly rapid melting of the Arctic icecap .
In that context , a question naturally arises : Is Covid-19 a stand-alone event , independent of any other mega-trends , or does it represent some sort of catastrophic tipping point ?
It will be some time before scientists can answer that question with any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ good reasons to believe that this might be the case and , if so , perhaps it ’ s high time humanity reconsiders its relationship with nature .
It ’ s common to think of human history as an evolutionary process in which broad , long-studied trends like colonialism and post-colonialism have largely shaped human affairs .
When sudden disruptions have occurred , they are usually attributed to , say , the collapse of a long-lasting dynasty or the rise of an ambitious new ruler .
But the course of human affairs has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ways—by natural occurrences , ranging from prolonged droughts to catastrophic volcanic activity to ( yes , of course ) plagues and pandemics .
The ancient Minoan civilization of the eastern Mediterranean , for example , is widely believed to have disintegrated following a powerful volcanic eruption on the island of Thera ( now known as Santorini ) in the 17th century BCE .
Archaeological evidence further suggests that other once-thriving cultures were similarly undermined or even extinguished by natural disasters .
It ’ s hardly surprising that the survivors of such catastrophes often @ @ @ @ @ @ @ various gods over human excesses and depredations .
In the ancient world , sacrifices—even human ones—were considered a necessity to appease such angry spirits .
At the onset of the Trojan War , for example , the Greek goddess Artemis , protectress of wild animals , the wilderness , and the moon , stilled the winds needed to propel the Greek fleet to Troy because Agamemnon , its commander , had killed a sacred deer .
To appease her and restore the essential winds , Agamemnon felt obliged—or so the poet Homer tells @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the plot line for many a Greek and modern tragedy ) .
In more recent times , educated people have generally seen coronavirus-style calamities as either inexplicable acts of God or as explicable , if surprising , natural events .
With the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution in Europe , moreover , many influential thinkers came to believe that humans could use science and technology to overpower nature and so harness it to the will of humanity .
The 17th century French mathematician René Descartes , for example , wrote of employing science @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can…render ourselves the masters and possessors of nature.
” This outlook undergirded the view , common in the last three centuries , that the Earth was “ virgin ” territory ( especially when it came to the colonial possessions of the major powers ) and so fully open to exploitation by human entrepreneurs .
This led to the deforestation of vast areas , as well as the extinction or near-extinction of many animals , and in more recent times , to the plunder of underground mineral and energy deposits .
As it happened @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but an impotent victim of colonization and exploitation .
Human mistreatment of the natural environment has turned out to have distinctly painful boomerang effects .
The ongoing destruction of the Amazon rain forest , for example , is altering Brazil ’ s climate , raising temperatures , and reducing rainfall in significant ways , with painful consequences for local farmers and even more distant urban dwellers .
( And the release of vast quantities of carbon dioxide , thanks to increasingly massive forest fires , will only increase the pace of climate change @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of hydraulic fracking , used to extract oil and natural gas trapped in underground shale deposits , can trigger earthquakes that damage aboveground structures and endanger human life .
In so many ways like these , Mother Nature strikes back when her vital organs suffer harm .
This interplay between human activity and planetary behavior has led some analysts to rethink our relationship with the natural world .
They have reconceptualized the Earth as a complex matrix of living and inorganic systems , all ( under normal conditions ) interacting to maintain a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the larger matrix is damaged or destroyed , the others respond in their unique ways in attempting to restore the natural order of things .
Originally propounded by the environmental scientist James Lovelock in the 1960s , this notion has often been described as “ the Gaia Hypothesis , ” after the ancient Greek goddess Gaia , the ancestral mother of all life .
Posing the ultimate threat to planetary health , climate change—a direct consequence of the human impulse to dump ever more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere , potentially heating the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ generate the most brutal of all such feedback loops .
By emitting ever more carbon dioxide and other gases , humans are fundamentally altering planetary chemistry and posing an almost unimaginable threat to natural ecosystems .
Climate-change deniers in the Trumpian mode continue to insist that we can keep doing this with no cost to our way of life .
It is , however , becoming increasingly apparent that the more we alter the climate , the more the planet will respond in ways guaranteed to endanger human life and prosperity .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ greenhouse effect , as all those greenhouse gases sent into the atmosphere entrap ever more radiated solar heat from the Earth ’ s surface , raising temperatures worldwide and so altering global climate patterns .
Until now , much of this added heat and carbon dioxide has been absorbed by the planet ’ s oceans , resulting in rising water temperatures and the increased acidification of their waters .
This , in turn , has already led to , among other deleterious effects , the mass die-off of coral reefs—the preferred habitat of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ large numbers of humans rely for their sustenance and livelihoods .
Just as consequential , higher ocean temperatures have provided the excess energy that has fueled many of the most destructive hurricanes of recent times , including Sandy , Harvey , Irma , Maria , Florence , and Dorian .
A warmer atmosphere can also sustain greater accumulations of moisture , making possible the prolonged downpours and catastrophic flooding being experienced in many parts of the world , including the upper Midwest in the United States .
In other areas , rainfall is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ frequent and prolonged , resulting in devastating wildfires of the sort witnessed in the American West in recent years and in Australia this year .
In all such ways , Mother Nature , you might say , is striking back .
It is , however , the potential for “ non-linear ” events and “ tipping points ” that has some climate scientists especially concerned , fearing that we now live on what might be thought of as an avenging planet .
While many climate effects , like prolonged heat waves , will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effects , it is now believed , will occur suddenly , with little warning , and could result in large-scale disruptions in human life ( as in this coronavirus moment ) .
You might think of this as Mother Nature saying , “ Stop !
Do not go past this point or there will be dreadful consequences !
” Scientists are understandably cautious in discussing such possibilities , as they are harder to study than linear events like rising world temperatures .
But the concern is there .
“ Large-scale singular events ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or critical thresholds ) are abrupt and drastic changes in physical , ecological , or social systems ” brought about by the relentless rise in temperatures , noted the U.N. ’ s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) in its comprehensive 2014 assessment of anticipated impacts .
Such events , the IPCC pointed out , “ pose key risks because of the potential magnitude of the consequences ; the rate at which they would occur ; and , depending on this rate , the limited ability of society to cope with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ striking description sounds eerily like the present moment .
Until now , the tipping points of greatest concern to scientists have been the rapid melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets .
Those two massive reservoirs of ice contain the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of square miles of water .
Should they melt ever more quickly with all that water flowing into neighboring oceans , a sea level rise of 20 feet or more can be expected , inundating many of the world ’ s most populous coastal cities and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2014 study , the IPCC predicted that this might occur over several centuries , at least offering plenty of time for humans to adapt , but more recent research indicates that those two ice sheets are melting far more rapidly than previously believed—and so a sharp increase in sea levels can be expected well before the end of this century with catastrophic consequences for coastal communities .
The IPCC also identified two other possible tipping points with potentially far-reaching consequences : the die-off of the Amazon rain forest and the melting of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under way , reducing the survival prospects of flora and fauna in their respective habitats .
As these processes gain momentum , entire ecosystems are likely to be obliterated and many species killed off , with drastic consequences for the humans who rely on them in so many ways ( from food to pollination chains ) for their survival .
But as is always the case in such transformations , other species—perhaps insects and microorganisms highly dangerous to humans—could occupy those spaces emptied by extinction .
Back in 2014 , the IPCC did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tipping points , but it did provide plenty of evidence that climate change would increase the risk of such catastrophes .
This is true for several reasons .
First , warmer temperatures and more moisture are conducive to the accelerated reproduction of mosquitoes , including those carrying malaria , the zika virus , and other highly infectious diseases .
Such conditions were once largely confined to the tropics , but as a result of global warming , formerly temperate areas are now experiencing more tropical conditions , resulting in the territorial expansion of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and zika are on the rise in areas that never previously experienced such diseases .
Similarly , dengue fever , a mosquito-borne viral disease that infects millions of people every year , is spreading especially quickly due to rising world temperatures .
Combined with mechanized agriculture and deforestation , climate change is also undermining subsistence farming and indigenous lifestyles in many parts of the world , driving millions of impoverished people to already crowded urban centers , where health facilities are often overburdened and the risk of contagion ever greater .
“ Virtually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ occur in urban agglomerations , ” the IPCC noted then .
Adequate sanitation is lacking in many of these cities , particularly in the densely populated shantytowns that often surround them : Such newly settled urban dwellers often retain strong ties to family members still in the countryside who , in turn , may come in contact with wild animals carrying deadly viruses .
This appears to have been the origin of the West African Ebola epidemic of 2014-2016 , which affected tens of thousands of people in Guinea , Liberia , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ebola virus ( like this coronavirus ) originated in bats and was then transmitted to gorillas and other wild animals that coexist with people living on the fringes of tropical forests .
Somehow , a human or humans contracted the disease from exposure to such creatures and then transmitted it to visitors from the city who , upon their return , infected many others .
This coronavirus appears to have had somewhat similar origins .
In recent years , hundreds of millions of once impoverished rural families moved to burgeoning industrial cities in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like Wuhan .
With its subways , skyscrapers , and superhighways , Wuhan is a densely packed city that also retained markets selling wild animals , some of which may have led to the spread of viruses and infectious diseases .
Many of those animals were trucked in from semi-rural areas hosting large numbers of bats , the apparent source of both this coronavirus and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome , or SARS , outbreak of 2013 , which also arose in China .
Scientific research suggests that breeding grounds for bats , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a result of rising world temperatures .
The global coronavirus pandemic is the product of a staggering multitude of factors , including the air links connecting every corner of the planet so intimately and the failure of government officials to move swiftly enough to sever those links .
But underlying all of that is the virus itself .
Are we , in fact , facilitating the emergence and spread of deadly pathogens like the Ebola virus , SARS , and the coronavirus through deforestation , haphazard urbanization , and the ongoing warming of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ early to answer such a question unequivocally , but the evidence is growing that this is the case .
If so , we had better take heed .
Suppose this interpretation of the Covid-19 pandemic is correct .
Suppose that the coronavirus is nature ’ s warning , its way of telling us that we ’ ve gone too far and must alter our behavior lest we risk further contamination .
What then ?
To adapt a phrase from the Cold War era , what humanity may need to do is institute a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Mother Nature .
This approach would legitimize the continued presence of large numbers of humans on the planet but require that they respect certain limits in their interactions with its ecosphere .
We humans could use our talents and technologies to improve life in areas we ’ ve long occupied , but infringement elsewhere would be heavily restricted .
Natural disasters—floods , volcanoes , earthquakes , and the like—would , of course , still occur , but not at a rate exceeding what we experienced in the pre-industrial past .
Implementation of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very least , require putting the brakes on climate change as swiftly as possible through the rapid and thorough elimination of human-induced carbon emissions—something that has , in fact , happened , in at least a modest way and however briefly , thanks to this Covid-19 moment .
Deforestation would also have to be halted and the world ’ s remaining wilderness areas preserved as is forever .
Any further despoliation of the oceans would have to be stopped , including the dumping of wastes , plastics , engine fuel , and runoff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in retrospect , prove to be the tipping point that upends human civilization as we know it , but it should serve as a warning that we will experience ever more such events in the future as the world heats up .
The only way to avert such a catastrophe and assure ourselves that Earth will not become an avenger planet is to heed Mother Nature ’ s warning and cease the further desecration of essential ecosystems .

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch. The Nation believes that helping readers stay informed about the impact of the coronavirus crisis is a form of public service. For that reason, this article, and all of our coronavirus coverage, is now free. Please subscribe to support our writers and staff, and stay healthy.
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As the novel coronavirus sweeps across the planet, leaving death and mayhem in its wake, many theories are being expounded to explain its ferocity. One, widely circulated within right-wing conspiracy circles, is that it originated as a biological weapon developed at a secret Chinese military lab in the city of Wuhan that somehow (perhaps intentionally?) escaped into the civilian population. Although that “theory” has been thoroughly debunked, President Trump and his acolytes continue to call Covid-19 the “China Virus,” the “Wuhan Virus,” or even the “Kung Flu,” claiming its global spread was the result of an inept and secretive Chinese government response. Scientists, by and large, believe the virus originated in bats and was transmitted to humans by wildlife sold at a Wuhan seafood market. But perhaps there’s another far more ominous possibility to consider: that this is one of Mother Nature’s ways of resisting humanity’s assault on her essential life systems.
Let’s be clear: This pandemic is a world-shattering phenomenon of massive proportions. Not only has it infected hundreds of thousands of people across the planet, killing more than 40,000 of them, but it’s brought the global economy to a virtual standstill, potentially crushing millions of businesses, large and small, while putting tens of millions, or possibly hundreds of millions, of people out of work. In the past, disasters of this magnitude have toppled empires, triggered mass rebellions, and caused widespread famine and starvation. This upheaval, too, will produce widespread misery and imperil the survival of numerous governments.
Understandably, our forebears came to view such calamities as manifestations of the fury of gods incensed by human disrespect for and mistreatment of their universe, the natural world. Today, educated people generally dismiss such notions, but scientists have recently been discovering that human impacts on the environment, especially the burning of fossil fuels, are producing feedback loops causing increasingly severe harm to communities across the globe, in the form of extreme storms, persistent droughts, massive wildfires, and recurring heat waves of an ever deadlier sort.
Climate scientists also speak of “singularities,” “non-linear events,” and “tipping points”—the sudden and irreversible collapse of vital ecological systems with far-ranging, highly destructive consequences for humanity. Evidence for such tipping points is growing—for example in the unexpectedly rapid melting of the Arctic icecap. In that context, a question naturally arises: Is Covid-19 a stand-alone event, independent of any other mega-trends, or does it represent some sort of catastrophic tipping point?
It will be some time before scientists can answer that question with any certainty. There are, however, good reasons to believe that this might be the case and, if so, perhaps it’s high time humanity reconsiders its relationship with nature.
Humans vs. Nature
It’s common to think of human history as an evolutionary process in which broad, long-studied trends like colonialism and post-colonialism have largely shaped human affairs. When sudden disruptions have occurred, they are usually attributed to, say, the collapse of a long-lasting dynasty or the rise of an ambitious new ruler. But the course of human affairs has also been altered—often in even more dramatic ways—by natural occurrences, ranging from prolonged droughts to catastrophic volcanic activity to (yes, of course) plagues and pandemics. The ancient Minoan civilization of the eastern Mediterranean, for example, is widely believed to have disintegrated following a powerful volcanic eruption on the island of Thera (now known as Santorini) in the 17th century BCE. Archaeological evidence further suggests that other once-thriving cultures were similarly undermined or even extinguished by natural disasters. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
It’s hardly surprising that the survivors of such catastrophes often attributed their misfortunes to the anger of various gods over human excesses and depredations. In the ancient world, sacrifices—even human ones—were considered a necessity to appease such angry spirits. At the onset of the Trojan War, for example, the Greek goddess Artemis, protectress of wild animals, the wilderness, and the moon, stilled the winds needed to propel the Greek fleet to Troy because Agamemnon, its commander, had killed a sacred deer. To appease her and restore the essential winds, Agamemnon felt obliged—or so the poet Homer tells us—to sacrifice his own daughter Iphigenia (the plot line for many a Greek and modern tragedy). Current Issue View our current issue
In more recent times, educated people have generally seen coronavirus-style calamities as either inexplicable acts of God or as explicable, if surprising, natural events. With the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution in Europe, moreover, many influential thinkers came to believe that humans could use science and technology to overpower nature and so harness it to the will of humanity. The 17th century French mathematician René Descartes, for example, wrote of employing science and human knowledge so that “we can…render ourselves the masters and possessors of nature.”
This outlook undergirded the view, common in the last three centuries, that the Earth was “virgin” territory (especially when it came to the colonial possessions of the major powers) and so fully open to exploitation by human entrepreneurs. This led to the deforestation of vast areas, as well as the extinction or near-extinction of many animals, and in more recent times, to the plunder of underground mineral and energy deposits.
As it happened, though, this planet proved anything but an impotent victim of colonization and exploitation. Human mistreatment of the natural environment has turned out to have distinctly painful boomerang effects. The ongoing destruction of the Amazon rain forest, for example, is altering Brazil’s climate, raising temperatures, and reducing rainfall in significant ways, with painful consequences for local farmers and even more distant urban dwellers. (And the release of vast quantities of carbon dioxide, thanks to increasingly massive forest fires, will only increase the pace of climate change globally.) Similarly, the technique of hydraulic fracking, used to extract oil and natural gas trapped in underground shale deposits, can trigger earthquakes that damage aboveground structures and endanger human life. In so many ways like these, Mother Nature strikes back when her vital organs suffer harm.
This interplay between human activity and planetary behavior has led some analysts to rethink our relationship with the natural world. They have reconceptualized the Earth as a complex matrix of living and inorganic systems, all (under normal conditions) interacting to maintain a stable balance. When one component of the larger matrix is damaged or destroyed, the others respond in their unique ways in attempting to restore the natural order of things. Originally propounded by the environmental scientist James Lovelock in the 1960s, this notion has often been described as “the Gaia Hypothesis,” after the ancient Greek goddess Gaia, the ancestral mother of all life.
Climate Tipping Points
Posing the ultimate threat to planetary health, climate change—a direct consequence of the human impulse to dump ever more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, potentially heating the planet to the breaking point—is guaranteed to generate the most brutal of all such feedback loops. By emitting ever more carbon dioxide and other gases, humans are fundamentally altering planetary chemistry and posing an almost unimaginable threat to natural ecosystems. Climate-change deniers in the Trumpian mode continue to insist that we can keep doing this with no cost to our way of life. It is, however, becoming increasingly apparent that the more we alter the climate, the more the planet will respond in ways guaranteed to endanger human life and prosperity.
The main engine of climate change is the greenhouse effect, as all those greenhouse gases sent into the atmosphere entrap ever more radiated solar heat from the Earth’s surface, raising temperatures worldwide and so altering global climate patterns. Until now, much of this added heat and carbon dioxide has been absorbed by the planet’s oceans, resulting in rising water temperatures and the increased acidification of their waters. This, in turn, has already led to, among other deleterious effects, the mass die-off of coral reefs—the preferred habitat of many of the fish species on which large numbers of humans rely for their sustenance and livelihoods. Just as consequential, higher ocean temperatures have provided the excess energy that has fueled many of the most destructive hurricanes of recent times, including Sandy, Harvey, Irma, Maria, Florence, and Dorian.
A warmer atmosphere can also sustain greater accumulations of moisture, making possible the prolonged downpours and catastrophic flooding being experienced in many parts of the world, including the upper Midwest in the United States. In other areas, rainfall is decreasing and heat waves are becoming more frequent and prolonged, resulting in devastating wildfires of the sort witnessed in the American West in recent years and in Australia this year.
In all such ways, Mother Nature, you might say, is striking back. It is, however, the potential for “non-linear” events and “tipping points” that has some climate scientists especially concerned, fearing that we now live on what might be thought of as an avenging planet. While many climate effects, like prolonged heat waves, will become more pronounced over time, other effects, it is now believed, will occur suddenly, with little warning, and could result in large-scale disruptions in human life (as in this coronavirus moment). You might think of this as Mother Nature saying, “Stop! Do not go past this point or there will be dreadful consequences!”
Scientists are understandably cautious in discussing such possibilities, as they are harder to study than linear events like rising world temperatures. But the concern is there. “Large-scale singular events (also called ‘tipping points,’ or critical thresholds) are abrupt and drastic changes in physical, ecological, or social systems” brought about by the relentless rise in temperatures, noted the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its comprehensive 2014 assessment of anticipated impacts. Such events, the IPCC pointed out, “pose key risks because of the potential magnitude of the consequences; the rate at which they would occur; and, depending on this rate, the limited ability of society to cope with them.”
Six years later, that striking description sounds eerily like the present moment.
Until now, the tipping points of greatest concern to scientists have been the rapid melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. Those two massive reservoirs of ice contain the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of square miles of water. Should they melt ever more quickly with all that water flowing into neighboring oceans, a sea level rise of 20 feet or more can be expected, inundating many of the world’s most populous coastal cities and forcing billions of people to relocate.In its 2014 study, the IPCC predicted that this might occur over several centuries, at least offering plenty of time for humans to adapt, but more recent research indicates that those two ice sheets are melting far more rapidly than previously believed—and so a sharp increase in sea levels can be expected well before the end of this century with catastrophic consequences for coastal communities.
The IPCC also identified two other possible tipping points with potentially far-reaching consequences: the die-off of the Amazon rain forest and the melting of the Arctic ice cap. Both are already under way, reducing the survival prospects of flora and fauna in their respective habitats. As these processes gain momentum, entire ecosystems are likely to be obliterated and many species killed off, with drastic consequences for the humans who rely on them in so many ways (from food to pollination chains) for their survival. But as is always the case in such transformations, other species—perhaps insects and microorganisms highly dangerous to humans—could occupy those spaces emptied by extinction.
Climate Change and Pandemics
Back in 2014, the IPCC did not identify human pandemics among potential climate-induced tipping points, but it did provide plenty of evidence that climate change would increase the risk of such catastrophes. This is true for several reasons. First, warmer temperatures and more moisture are conducive to the accelerated reproduction of mosquitoes, including those carrying malaria, the zika virus, and other highly infectious diseases. Such conditions were once largely confined to the tropics, but as a result of global warming, formerly temperate areas are now experiencing more tropical conditions, resulting in the territorial expansion of mosquito breeding grounds. Accordingly, malaria and zika are on the rise in areas that never previously experienced such diseases. Similarly, dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease that infects millions of people every year, is spreading especially quickly due to rising world temperatures.
Combined with mechanized agriculture and deforestation, climate change is also undermining subsistence farming and indigenous lifestyles in many parts of the world, driving millions of impoverished people to already crowded urban centers, where health facilities are often overburdened and the risk of contagion ever greater. “Virtually all the projected growth in populations will occur in urban agglomerations,” the IPCC noted then. Adequate sanitation is lacking in many of these cities, particularly in the densely populated shantytowns that often surround them:
About 150 million people currently live in cities affected by chronic water shortages, and by 2050, unless there are rapid improvements in urban environments, the number will rise to almost a billion.
Such newly settled urban dwellers often retain strong ties to family members still in the countryside who, in turn, may come in contact with wild animals carrying deadly viruses. This appears to have been the origin of the West African Ebola epidemic of 2014-2016, which affected tens of thousands of people in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Scientists believe that the Ebola virus (like this coronavirus) originated in bats and was then transmitted to gorillas and other wild animals that coexist with people living on the fringes of tropical forests. Somehow, a human or humans contracted the disease from exposure to such creatures and then transmitted it to visitors from the city who, upon their return, infected many others.
This coronavirus appears to have had somewhat similar origins. In recent years, hundreds of millions of once impoverished rural families moved to burgeoning industrial cities in central and coastal China, including places like Wuhan. With its subways, skyscrapers, and superhighways, Wuhan is a densely packed city that also retained markets selling wild animals, some of which may have led to the spread of viruses and infectious diseases. Many of those animals were trucked in from semi-rural areas hosting large numbers of bats, the apparent source of both this coronavirus and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, outbreak of 2013, which also arose in China. Scientific research suggests that breeding grounds for bats, like mosquitoes, are expanding significantly as a result of rising world temperatures.
The global coronavirus pandemic is the product of a staggering multitude of factors, including the air links connecting every corner of the planet so intimately and the failure of government officials to move swiftly enough to sever those links. But underlying all of that is the virus itself. Are we, in fact, facilitating the emergence and spread of deadly pathogens like the Ebola virus, SARS, and the coronavirus through deforestation, haphazard urbanization, and the ongoing warming of the planet? It may be too early to answer such a question unequivocally, but the evidence is growing that this is the case. If so, we had better take heed.
Heeding Mother Nature’s Warning
Suppose this interpretation of the Covid-19 pandemic is correct. Suppose that the coronavirus is nature’s warning, its way of telling us that we’ve gone too far and must alter our behavior lest we risk further contamination. What then?
To adapt a phrase from the Cold War era, what humanity may need to do is institute a new policy of “peaceful coexistence” with Mother Nature. This approach would legitimize the continued presence of large numbers of humans on the planet but require that they respect certain limits in their interactions with its ecosphere. We humans could use our talents and technologies to improve life in areas we’ve long occupied, but infringement elsewhere would be heavily restricted. Natural disasters—floods, volcanoes, earthquakes, and the like—would, of course, still occur, but not at a rate exceeding what we experienced in the pre-industrial past.
Implementation of such a strategy would, at the very least, require putting the brakes on climate change as swiftly as possible through the rapid and thorough elimination of human-induced carbon emissions—something that has, in fact, happened, in at least a modest way and however briefly, thanks to this Covid-19 moment. Deforestation would also have to be halted and the world’s remaining wilderness areas preserved as is forever. Any further despoliation of the oceans would have to be stopped, including the dumping of wastes, plastics, engine fuel, and runoff pesticides.
This coronavirus may not, in retrospect, prove to be the tipping point that upends human civilization as we know it, but it should serve as a warning that we will experience ever more such events in the future as the world heats up. The only way to avert such a catastrophe and assure ourselves that Earth will not become an avenger planet is to heed Mother Nature’s warning and cease the further desecration of essential ecosystems.