Brian Douglas: Who created this terrible pandemic?

Author Brian Douglas.

I was speaking to a local friend a couple of days ago, both of us wearing our respective protective face masks and she asked me who I thought was responsible for the current situation that we are living în? She looked strange when I replied we all are responsible!

Oh I dont agree with that she said, it the governments and those like în China who play with deadly viruses. Really I replied and who told you about the Chineese playing with viruses I asked? Well its în all the press, you can read for yourself and governments are to blame aș they allow this to happen. It took some explaining to my friend to asure her that not all you read în the newsmedia is true aș they have their own angles of interest often by political nature or of business nature and the like.

I went back to state my orginal statement that we are all to blame and explained that this has been the case for many years aș we have destroyed în a large part planet Earth now to a point where we have to stay indoors and when rush out to do shopping must protect ourselves with a face mask to help avert becoming ill.

Let me explain………. I remember when I was 17 years old one weekend at the seaside looking out over the north sea în the UK and I with freinds ran down the beach to go for a swim în the blue sea water. Then a voice shouted out, Hey you cant swim there, didnt you see the sign??

What sign….. Ah that one….. Hey lets take a look at what it says. Oh I dont believe, not here, it cant be true,can it? This was back in 1971 I add and the sign stated that the water was unsafe to swim in because of pollution, so yes we have been killing our planet for many years not just recent ones.

Now large ships go up and down the oceans and seas around the World daily, many dropping serious residues into the water as well as occasional oil spills and this over so many years has damaged the ocean floor including corals that breathe life into the waters and are home to many oceanic life creatures as well as fish. Pollution is so rife in the oceans and seas that many species of fish have become almost extinct nowadays.

The rapid growth of cities during the Industrial Revolution led to polluted streets that were a hotbed for infection and disease. When I was a child smog caused by coal fires for domestic use and industrial use polluted the air daily. Not any more in Europe as the dangers to health where recognised long ago, but some countries are still polluters. There is though still smog in the air only we call it now air pollution and it now comes from a vastly different source, being that from vehicles large and small ranging from the family car to the multi ton truck and aeroplane that flies above us. Whilst air travel has increased over many years, so has pollution from the air plane engines and even jettisoning of unused fuel at certain times whilst airborne and about to land.

In short we have jumped ahead so fast that we didn’t look at the side effects of modernization and in many instances they are no longer side effects as have changed the make up of our planet. Simply look at the skies above major Cities in the World in the last few weeks whilst we are in lock-down at home with businesses closed from the Covid-19 virus and you see skies that are almost pollution free!

Massive changes in the structure of the earths surface have taken place in the last 100 years caused by the effects of two World Wars and many other serious conflicts including the Korean conflict, Vietnam war, Gulf war just to name few and as in all wars there is not only a huge human loss of life, but also a complete destruction of mass land areas, by bombing, and land assaults by troops in movement that leaves not only wreckage but often a land that is depleted of nutrients and any form of life.

Logging of rain forests and large European forests for financial interests of large business magnets is so severe now that there are wild species and animals so badly affected that they are becoming extinct. Open

land where forests use to be are now an open corridor for flood water and not only as when this land is burnt dry by the every increasing global temperatures bush fires start so easily that with even a small wind flow can rage out of control, some fires even started by criminal elements within society which put others in danger also.

The recent serious fire outbreak in the area around Chernobyl in Ukraine is a perfect example of how fumes including toxic ones can from an out of control large fire be raised into the air and pollute many countries airspace and we all know that what goes up must come down, so we all in affected areas that may be thousands of kilometres away breathe in this infected air….No wonder we have so many respiratory problems!!

My friends so far in this 21st Century we have seen Sars, Mers, Ebola, bird flu, swine flu and now Covid-19. We are in lock-down situation in many Countries to try prevent the spread of Covid-19 and unless we change our ways the next big pandemic will have all the means to wipe us out forever, so I wonder who will take the lead to change our planet for the better and make it a cleaner one so we can breathe in clean air rather than polluted infected air into our lungs.

Changes will need to be made al all levels of society to achieve this. Air travel will need to be re-thought as will pollution cause by heavy industry and vehicles including large ships that travel along shipping lanes. Heads of states and Governments must act and if they don’t then the public must vote them out by democratic means, non violent for the well-being of all the citizens of the globe. Business leaders must find new cleaner ways to do business and again be held to account, not by shareholders looking no matter what for profits, but by the public who purchase their products. We Joe public must also play our part and live cleaner lives by recycling plastics and other items and use the car less to travel to work, when many a city person can in fact either walk or cycle and keep fit and healthy in the process.

As I said to my friend we are all to blame for the pandemic and over many years as we didn’t read the signs or chose to ignore them, but we now have a chance to go forward slowly as life returns and make a better life standard not just for ourselves but for the planet we live on too!

Brian Douglas is a British humanitarian with over 25 years of experience in Tuberculosis prevention and outreach work helping marginalized families in Romania.

In 2017 he was awarded the British News Agency Award 247 person of the year award

29-04-2020