Radical Noesis - Thinking outside the box

"Efficiencies" and profit have driven some of these diseases on the agricultural side. BSE is a direct consequence of feeding practices that feeds cows as if they were carnivores rather than herbivores. It has also exposed livestock to disease agents they would not have been exposed to under normal circumstances by making waste livestock of one species into the base for feed for another. Mutating antigens have placed the whole system at risk. Since humans are the end consumer, these problems culminate at the highest level of the food chain.

Other "efficiencies" have placed livestock into overcrowded conditions with no normality to their lives, and a concentration of bacteria and viruses and infectious agents. To decrease the loss (death toll) from such practices, large amounts of antibiotics are introduced into the feed. This practice has increased the immunity of "bugs" and decreased the effectiveness of antibiotics. So "superbugs" are created, disease resistant strains are created. Mutation rates for infectious agents jumping species are created - aided by biotechnology and genetic tampering.

Globalization, on one hand facilitates the potential for rapid global spread of deadly diseases, at the same time that exploitation drives humans into regions where they have not been in any numbers. Wildlife is confined to smaller and smaller areas increasing population density while also weakening species through smaller gene pools and concentration of parasitic agents. As wild populations shrink, viruses look for new hosts and take the one with no resistance - humans. Hence , we get outbreaks of Marburg, Ebola, and other deadly viruses. Some even suspect that HIV/AIDS may have followed this pattern.

The problems boil down to exploitation and profit coupled with trying to resolve the health issues that come from them. Underneath these issues lies a basic perception of dichotomy (human vs nature)and supremacy (the earth and all that is on it is for humans). It is a belief that leads to approaching the world as endlessly manipulable for human gain. It is an approach that is likely to lead us to disaster. "Natural" rules pertain - to the earth and to human beings. Pandemic is becoming part of common language rather than "once it happened." To the best of my knowledge, we have thus far experienced two true pandemics - the Spanish flu of 1918, and HIV. Waiting in the wings (and if you listen to the experts almost on stage) are a host of potential pandemics. The Avian flu is a leading contender. I heard a report last week that said that if the Avian Flu went pandemic, it could kill 386 million people. This would certainly dwarf the Spanish Flu death toll of 40-50 million. The projected global death toll is linked to a variety of issues: the failure to contain an epidemic, the number of rapid vehicles for the transmission of the epidemic before it was even known; mega-population centers and networks, and lack of medical staff (in some areas) and ability to respond to massive disease in all areas. In other words, we are not ready on any level. Further, it is highly unlikely that we ever will be.

The experts are nervous, some are well beyond nervous. They are reinforcing with every report, that the question is "when" not "if." Increasingly, that "when" sounds imminent. Canadian Broadcasting had a special report, and it was interesting to hear the same kinds of questions being raised about the implications of an Avian Flu pandemic and the end of oil catastrophe. They spoke of stopping global shipping and transportation as control mechanisms, and how unprepared nations were to deal with that scenario. They spoke of infrastructure collapse, as the pandemic spread.

It does not seem coincidence to me that there are similarities of social impacts when we look at global "disasters." Whether that disaster is a pandemic, the end of oil, environmental collapse or global warming, makes no difference. They all attack the weakness of the structures we have created. They are all magnified by our enforced dependence, and the vested interests to extract profit from the current system. Our ability to respond is dramatically hampered by 1) an effort to not address the problems of out social organization and path, and 2) it is not "profitable" to make those changes.

Because we are not given information in a way that looks at the broader issues and their interconnection, people cannot discuss, mobilize, or prepare. In short, they can't put the necessary pressure on decision makers to force them to do something. I am not sure how we change that, but it seems increasingly critical that we do so.

Articles
WHO Avian Influenza

CBC News, INDEPTH: AVIAN FLU. The next pandemic?, 3/08/05

Lean, Independent/UK, Bird flu could kill 2 million Britons, 4/13/05

LaFraniere, NY Times, Health Workers Race to Block Deadly Virus in Angolan Town, 4/11/05

BBC, Threat of 'flesh-eating' MRSA bug, 4/08/05

BBC, Developing world at superbug risk, 3/25/05