What the F*** ?
By Eleanor Munro
In China and beyond, we see the rise of a new surveillance state,
supported with the argument that we need to monitor people, by phone, drone
and CCTV in order to trace who might have contaminated whom with a virus, in order to contain that virus.
It is ironic that states want to closely regulate people, but have not been regulating business, and markets for these last 30 years, since the idea of the globalised world arose (in other words an unregulated market).
The neo-liberal policies of the un-regulated market, accumulating wealth in elites who want to eat more meat, travel around, and consume more resources; are all about reducing any burdens (like tax) or planning regulations, to allow more and more economic growth, and more and more consumption of materials.
It is therefore unfair, and bizarre but not surprising that the state will now control the individual but not a company.
The growing obsession with travel, and digital gadgets is promoted in state-funded media such as the BBC News channel with its ‘Travel ‘ programme, and ‘Click’ programme.
For years it has been clear that this so-called ‘interest’ in the world (called ‘travel’), is actually self-centred and has been destroying the planet through greenhouse gas emissions and removal of habitats and species. And now we see how it also spreads diseases.
The transference of Covid 19 into Europe is due to the mobility of people to-ing and fro-ing across continents. The appearance of new viruses in humans is also linked to habitat destruction, and ever rising demands for meat and novelty. Factory farming in China may be a factor in pushing small holders off the land, who then sought a livelihood in the wild-animal trade.
And it is the wealth of the middle class, which fuels it.
The trade in bush meat in Africa led to the transference of Ebola from monkeys into humans.
Much bush meat in Africa is for the urban elite.
SINCE OUR DISEASES HAVE LARGELY COME FROM CLOSE CONTACT WITH ANIMALS, the way to avoid such disasters as Covid-19 is to cut down, avoid and eliminate close contact with animals. It is likely that covid 19 has come from bats or another wild animal, in a market in Wuhan, China. SARS (South Asian Respiratory Sydrome) came from bats.
I heard a description by an eye witness on the radio who described the appalling conditions in Chinese wild food markets.
He described cages on top of each other including wild bats who would be defecating onto the animals below, such as pangolins. These are the ideal conditions for a pathogen to transfer to another animal, and from that one into humans, as it is butchered, chopped up and consumed. This eye witness (from a campaign group against such markets) thought it was highly likely that covid-19 is a bat virus that came to humans via pangolin meat.
It seems really bizarre that China, a very authoritarian state, that currently is committing genocide against the Uighur people, can trace exactly where everyone is, in order to track and control a virus, but it can’t regulate wild food markets, or prevent the sale of poached African elephant ivory. The reality must be that the current regime chooses to do such things.
From a guardian article , on Fri 24 Jan 2020, by Sarah Boseley we hear that:
After Sars – the severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2002-3 caused by a very similar coronavirus to the one currently in China – there was a temporary ban on the wild animal markets. Chinese scientists wrote papers on the risks of allowing people to trade and eat wild meat.
But the markets are operating again and are widespread across China, Vietnam and other parts of south-east Asia, said Prof Diana Bell from the University of East Anglia’s School of Biological Sciences.
Although the coronaviruses behind both Sars and Mers (Middle East respiratory syndrome) were traced eventually to bats, Bell says bats are not necessarily the source of the new virus. “It’s just that bats have been quite well studied,” she said.
Man’s destruction of the habitat of many wild species may be partly responsible, she added. Forests and other habitats are being cleared. Species that survive are moving and mixing with different animals and with humans.
Ebola came from monkeys, infected by bats and eaten in the African bush by people in very poor villages. But in China, wild animal meat is not cheap. “These have now become luxury items,” said Bell. “It’s a perfect storm. There is a shift from subsistence hunting to feed your family – that might make your family sick but it doesn’t go anywhere else. Now, these animals are being sold into a multibillion pound illegal trade, right up there with drugs. They cost more than livestock.
So the problem, like so much of our impact on the natural world, is over-consumption.
Wealthy people want exotic foods, they want to ‘experience’ the world and travel around it in aircraft, in order to tick off items on their ‘bucket list’.
This is simply not possible, any more. It is causing massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. It is spreading diseases around the world. It fosters economies such as that in Thailand which are destroying their own environment and culture.
By Eleanor Munro
In China and beyond, we see the rise of a new surveillance state,
supported with the argument that we need to monitor people, by phone, drone
and CCTV in order to trace who might have contaminated whom with a virus, in order to contain that virus.
It is ironic that states want to closely regulate people, but have not been regulating business, and markets for these last 30 years, since the idea of the globalised world arose (in other words an unregulated market).
The neo-liberal policies of the un-regulated market, accumulating wealth in elites who want to eat more meat, travel around, and consume more resources; are all about reducing any burdens (like tax) or planning regulations, to allow more and more economic growth, and more and more consumption of materials.
It is therefore unfair, and bizarre but not surprising that the state will now control the individual but not a company.
The growing obsession with travel, and digital gadgets is promoted in state-funded media such as the BBC News channel with its ‘Travel ‘ programme, and ‘Click’ programme.
For years it has been clear that this so-called ‘interest’ in the world (called ‘travel’), is actually self-centred and has been destroying the planet through greenhouse gas emissions and removal of habitats and species. And now we see how it also spreads diseases.
The transference of Covid 19 into Europe is due to the mobility of people to-ing and fro-ing across continents. The appearance of new viruses in humans is also linked to habitat destruction, and ever rising demands for meat and novelty. Factory farming in China may be a factor in pushing small holders off the land, who then sought a livelihood in the wild-animal trade.
And it is the wealth of the middle class, which fuels it.
The trade in bush meat in Africa led to the transference of Ebola from monkeys into humans.
Much bush meat in Africa is for the urban elite.
SINCE OUR DISEASES HAVE LARGELY COME FROM CLOSE CONTACT WITH ANIMALS, the way to avoid such disasters as Covid-19 is to cut down, avoid and eliminate close contact with animals. It is likely that covid 19 has come from bats or another wild animal, in a market in Wuhan, China. SARS (South Asian Respiratory Sydrome) came from bats.
I heard a description by an eye witness on the radio who described the appalling conditions in Chinese wild food markets.
He described cages on top of each other including wild bats who would be defecating onto the animals below, such as pangolins. These are the ideal conditions for a pathogen to transfer to another animal, and from that one into humans, as it is butchered, chopped up and consumed. This eye witness (from a campaign group against such markets) thought it was highly likely that covid-19 is a bat virus that came to humans via pangolin meat.
It seems really bizarre that China, a very authoritarian state, that currently is committing genocide against the Uighur people, can trace exactly where everyone is, in order to track and control a virus, but it can’t regulate wild food markets, or prevent the sale of poached African elephant ivory. The reality must be that the current regime chooses to do such things.
From a guardian article , on Fri 24 Jan 2020, by Sarah Boseley we hear that:
After Sars – the severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2002-3 caused by a very similar coronavirus to the one currently in China – there was a temporary ban on the wild animal markets. Chinese scientists wrote papers on the risks of allowing people to trade and eat wild meat.
But the markets are operating again and are widespread across China, Vietnam and other parts of south-east Asia, said Prof Diana Bell from the University of East Anglia’s School of Biological Sciences.
Although the coronaviruses behind both Sars and Mers (Middle East respiratory syndrome) were traced eventually to bats, Bell says bats are not necessarily the source of the new virus. “It’s just that bats have been quite well studied,” she said.
Man’s destruction of the habitat of many wild species may be partly responsible, she added. Forests and other habitats are being cleared. Species that survive are moving and mixing with different animals and with humans.
Ebola came from monkeys, infected by bats and eaten in the African bush by people in very poor villages. But in China, wild animal meat is not cheap. “These have now become luxury items,” said Bell. “It’s a perfect storm. There is a shift from subsistence hunting to feed your family – that might make your family sick but it doesn’t go anywhere else. Now, these animals are being sold into a multibillion pound illegal trade, right up there with drugs. They cost more than livestock.
So the problem, like so much of our impact on the natural world, is over-consumption.
Wealthy people want exotic foods, they want to ‘experience’ the world and travel around it in aircraft, in order to tick off items on their ‘bucket list’.
This is simply not possible, any more. It is causing massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. It is spreading diseases around the world. It fosters economies such as that in Thailand which are destroying their own environment and culture.
