10 Simultaneous "Plagues"

[CrealCritter]

I'm not an alarmest but I do like to know what's going on around me. I also like to post things about health / environment that I feel are important to us all.

I've been holding back here lately, only because there is so much to post about, I can't keep up. The best I can tell there are at least 10 "plagues" that are effecting planet earth simultaneously. I say "plagues" in quotes because, being a God fearing man I don't know what other term to use that fits the bill.

#1 Cancer - raise your hand if someone you know has not died from cancer. What no one raised their hands?

#2 Armies Of Locusts - developed in Africa ravaged millions of acres of crops across Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, crossed the Sea and is eating away at China now. So massive is the army that they devour entire fields of crops in as little as 30 seconds.

#3 Extremely Bizarre Weather Patterns - I like to joke around about Al Gore and his global warming. But I don't think I need to say anything further about the weather patterns, we all are experiencing "something" unusually different than what we remember as youths.

#4 Unprecedented Flooding - We are seeing unusual flooding all over the world, and as of late the southern US has been impacted also.

#5 Major Earthquakes - Really big earthquakes are happening with such frequency now that it is very difficult for me to keep track of them all.

#6 Unusual Volcanic Eruptions - Seismic activity has been rising all over the globe, and over the past couple of months we have seen volcanoes all over the world pop off as common as dynomite in a rock quary.

#7 Coronavirus - The numbers continue to rise, and many are speculating that this could potentially become the worst global pandemic since the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. I hope they are wrong though.

#8 African Swine Fever - “Pig Ebola” has already wiped out millions upon millions of pigs in China, and it has now spread to more than 40 other countries.

#9 The H1N1 Swine Flu – Unlike the African Swine Fever, the H1N1 Swine Flu can actually harm humans. I've read it's already caused more human mortalities outside of China than the coronavirus has. I also hope this is wrong, it's so hard to trust what you read on the internet.

#10 H5N1 Bird Flu – This strain of the bird flu caused a massive global scare a number of years ago, and they are now predicting a resurgence. China has had to kill thousands of chickens so far, and experts are warning that this outbreak could be just getting started. Again I hope the experts are wrong.

 

[tortoise]

I'm not buying it for a second.

#1 is something we (at a level of the US population) bring upon ourselves, a disease of civilization
#2 the current locust swarm was caused by unusual weather patterns, see #3 and #4. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...-effort-kill-massive-locust-swarms-biocontrol
#3 also something we (human species) have brought upon ourselves
#4 the polar ice cap is melting, what do you expect to happen??
#5 earthquake activity isn't increasing. http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/news/EQ_increase.html
#6 see #5
#7 see #10
#8 see #10
#9 you're probably vaccinated against it. During the pandemic 2009 - 2010, estimated 20% of the world was infected, but the death rate was low. H1N1 strain has been added to annual flu vaccines ever since.
#10 there are always new viruses, that's what viruses do. Monoculture makes food supplies and livestock animal populations very vulnerable... so again, something we brought upon ourselves with big Ag. (oops).

 

[frustratedearthmother]

^ X1000000000000.... ^

 

[flowerbug]

I'm not buying it for a second.
...

nothing new under the sun IMO. you wait until the Huns or Mongol hordes ride and then you've got some news...

people complain about flooding with rains, but do they ever wonder why? it used to be the land was covered by forests and grasslands in many places so the rains would get soaked up and buffered so they would not run off so quickly. now every farm field around here has been installing drain tubes and making sure the ditches are all scraped bare so that water runs off quickly. greed is the base element of it, and poor land management, but that is just what is happening.

 

[CrealCritter]

If I hear the consensus so far, most everything I mentioned above is caused by humans? Is that right?

 

[BarredBuff]

I agree with your assessment that we seem to have more "plagues" than usual. I feel like it's a culmination of many different factors.

I can tell you from my experience that the climate is changing. I am not that old, and I remember things were different as a kid in 2004. They're different than when I started homesteading in 2009. Primarily, it's all weather. I haven't had a normal growing season in five years or longer. It's been rain, rain, and more rain for the last few years. We haven't had a normal winter in that time either. The last big snow we got was in 2015.

I think all of this is more of a cycle of events with significant pressure applied by humanity's greed, selfishness, and depravity.

 

[flowerbug]

some humans.

if you study up on ants you'll find that almost every large scale social activity of humans is duplicated in their behaviors. they have wars, they have agriculture, they farm, they herd, ...

the diseases of mankind, many are now coming from too close of contact with animals, living with a pig eating human waste under the house is just not a great idea...

this idea though that we can destroy the environment and not pay a price for it, well you can see how that's going. not necessarily man doing it entirely, just setting up the conditions and then seeing how natural calamities can make it far worse than it would have been otherwise.

 

[flowerbug]

i didn't have time this morning to really read through it all, but let me talk about this one now that i do have a few more moments:

"#1 Cancer - raise your hand if someone you know has not died from cancer. What no one raised their hands?"

in ancient times, you died from diseases as a child and a fair number of women died from complications of childbirth.

those who didn't die young may later die from wounds that got infected or consequences of injuries that then went septic.

still if you lived to be sixty i think that was a pretty old age.

if you go back further, you could have been chased down by sabre toothed tigers or other wild animals still big and mean enough to be an actual challenge.

as to cancer in specific, if you didn't live that long you probably didn't die of cancer because you died of other things first.

now they are coming up with new therapies and treatments. we had one friend who had breast cancer three times and lived until she was nearly 90. we have various friends now who are still alive only because of advanced medicine. i am alive only because they had an incubator at the hospital where i was born. if i had been born a few years earlier i don't think i'd have survived (i weighed 2lbs6oz when i was born and was sick and got below 2lbs before i finally fought it off and came around - i do consider every day here on this earth that i have as a gift).

right now i have two of the four of my siblings because of the medical arts and modern science, but that doesn't necessarily mean things have gotten better because some of the illnesses are due to injuries or lifesyles that weren't prevalent in hunters and gatherers.

so you can in some cases say we've been trading one thing for another.

time and science will march on, we'll learn more, some things will get better as we have more understanding, but surely we do need to take better care of the world around us now.

if you have a night light outside or any lights which are attracing insects at night. put them on a timer that is motion activated so they will turn off. the night sky will also appreciate it.

 

[Britesea]

I tend to believe that it is hubris on our part to think that humans have changed the world's climate. Do you really think you have the power to destroy God's Creation? The earth seems to have a way of resetting things when it gets too out of wack. Usually it means a lot of discomfort, sometimes even the extinction of several species. Ours may be next.

 

[BarredBuff]

I tend to believe that it is hubris on our part to think that humans have changed the world's climate. Do you really think you have the power to destroy God's Creation? The earth seems to have a way of resetting things when it gets too out of wack. Usually it means a lot of discomfort, sometimes even the extinction of several species. Ours may be next.

I believe it is changing, but I believe we are arrogant to think we can be the sole source of its change or that our efforts will lead to the Earth's destruction.