Corona and Planet Earth
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
These mere words of Dr. King weren’t just an accumulation of thoughts for his fellow Clergymen from Birmingham Jail; they rather tell a story untold, that encompasses the entirety of our interdependence on each other as fragments of this planet.
Planet’s well-being and our health are so intertwined in one another that they are inseparable to certain extent. Be it a link, through a pandemic such as COVID-19, as a result of the human invasion into the ecological habitat of flora and fauna for commercial gains and greed or be it welfare of this diverse ecosystem, which humans themselves are a part of; Earth at large is concomitant.
With the globalized, industrialized and inefficient practices of humans, there is an ascent in consumption driven business models which creates an illusion of growth and proceeds, feeding on the idea of Earth and her beings as raw materials and hence creating one world connected through disease.
The predicament that the COVID is waking us up to, is connected to the crisis of extinction and disappearance of species, and it is connected to the climate emergency. All emergencies are rooted in a mechanistic, militaristic, anthropocentric world view of humans as separate from, and superior to other beings who we can own, manipulate and control. It is also rooted in an economic model based on the illusion of limitless growth and immeasurable greed which systematically violates planetary limitations and ecosystem and species integrity.
Instead of embracing the continuum of biodiversity, we as a world, today, are connected through a pandemic. The pandemic is undeniably a causal effect of existential climate crisis, more so, increasing the likelihood of more such catastrophes, that can happen in the future. Human impingement on natural habitats, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are making virus spillover events much more likely.
Diseases are moving from non-human animals to the human animal as we destroy the habitat and homes of wild species, we violate their integrity. The illusion that plants and animals are resources to fuel the greed of humans, has created a mechanistic, militaristic paradigm which is at the root of the explosion of chronic diseases. These same beliefs, also cause harm to the planet’s biodiversity, the Earth’s self-regulating capacity leading to climate havoc.
The corona crisis and the response to the crisis needs to become the ground for stopping processes that degenerate our health and the planet’s health and starting process that regenerate both. The economy based on limitless growth is leading to a limitless appetite to colonize the land and forests, destroying the homes of other species.
Disease are being born by the unlimited demand for resources for a globalized economy based on unlimited growth. An economy of greed is violating of the precedence set by the nature and the rights of Earth.
Core to the systematic ecosystem is care and gratitude, of giving back to the earth, creating circular economies which heal the Earth. The future depends on our ability to reason and evolve as humanity on one planet connected through biodiversity. The Corona crisis amidst the chaos and pain, also provides us with an opportunity to make a paradigm shift from the mechanistic age of separation, domination, greed and disease, to the age of Euphoria, of a civilization based on planetary consciousness. Let’s make a conscious choice this time.
