what was the pandemic like grandad?

One day we will be over the coronavirus pandemic and covid19 will be a thing of the past, just like Spanish Flu and Dire Straits.

Or will it?

With so much globalisation these days, mutated variants arising in some remote corner of the world (like Kent) will pretty soon be transported to all corners of the globe.  Unless we change.

Covid19 will not be the last pandemic to strike I fear.  There will be others, possibly much worse.  And I also fear we won't have learned any lessons from this one.

It tells me at least that we have to change.  We cannot carry on as we were before; we simply can't go back to normal.  Normal is no longer god enough.  We need to stop treating this planet as some discount store to be emptied of all its goods, or we'll soon be facing the mother of all closing down sales.

I think things like jetting off on holiday all over the world need to be seen as unfashionable and an affront to humanity.  I know this would ruin the economies of some countries, but what is the alternative?  Another fifty years of human existence maybe and then that's it?

We have to stop the planet from warming up.  Not just slow the rate down - but reverse it.  Think of the economy I hear industrialists cry.  Well, there won't be an economy left within a couple of generations at this rate.

ugly - in more ways than one

Covid19 needs to be our wake-up call.  It could have (and still could be - we don't know yet) been an extinction event, wiping humanity out for ever.  If we don't heed this alarm then we are doomed.

Our only hope is the youth.  Will they grow up to be responsible custodians of the planet?  Or will they become corrupted by the promise of riches if they just dig out that last piece of whatever resource we deem necessary next.

Personally I feel we need a return to a far more insular world in order to survive.  We need to rely on our domestic economies and resources along with fair trade to provide what we need.  Or perhaps I'm being naive and this will just lead to wars and land grabs as the richest countries want more than their share.

The pandemic has exposed the fact that as a race we have no plan.  We exist for today only with no thought for the future. We fire fight crises instead of planning to contain or avoid them.

Whatever, I fear for the next few generations to come.  They really could be the last.