Human bodies

Bats host many deadly zoonotic viruses. They have super immunity.

There is a common misconception that our quality of life is entirely predicated upon the health of the stock market, our education level, our income, or on our ability to engage with consumer culture. While these factors often do play a role in our well-being, the natural world and natural resources are the true underpinnings of quality of life. Without clean air, clean water, and nutritious food (the building blocks of social stability), nothing else we want to do would be possible.

A changing climate and the degradation of our biosphere reduces the likelihood of people accessing critical, life-sustaining resources, especially for the most vulnerable and disenfranchised. A changing climate and the destruction of vital wilderness areas have also led to the emergence of pandemics that cause illness, disability, and death, reducing quality of life--especially for those already on the margins of our society.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the necessity of prioritizing human health and well-being over short-term profits. Countries that have prioritized public health have managed the pandemic much more effectively than those that have prioritized the continued accumulation of profit.

Non-human bodies

Bats are important pollinators

Most of the pandemics to emerge over the past century are with us because of human society's encroachment on sensitive wilderness areas. Tropical rainforests and other densely packed wilderness areas are teeming with all sorts of life, and including bacteria and viruses that would normally remain sequestered there, bothering no one. There are consequences to habitually disturbing delicate ecological balances.

Over the past half-century, human society's destruction of nature and wildlife has reached unsustainable levels. This destruction and disregard for ecology is not without consequences. Deadly pandemics and climate change are rooted in biodiversity loss/disruption and the rapid accumulation of CO2 pollution in our atmosphere.

Moving forward

The mythologies and folklore of many Indigenous cultures refer to the Earth and the natural forces as living beings worthy of consideration and respect. The dominant global culture of extraction and consumption primarily views the Earth as an inert mass of resources available for exploitation. The modern day Gaia theory is an example of Western culture playing catch-up with Indigenous societies. We should learn from ancient cultures that once lived in harmony with nature for millennia and center Indigenous practices and worldviews into any strategies for mitigating the environmental crisis and future pandemics.

Sources