[Coral-List] COVID-19 IMPACT ON SCIENCE AND CLIMATE CHANGE

[Austin Bowden-Kerby]

Dear friends,

I am writing from a sealed-off Fiji and South Pacific region-  all flights
are closed down, and so it will be impossible for me to fly to Europe
anytime soon, and we expect this to be the case well past July and into
2021.

I think that perhaps it is time to stop the banter, as if nothing has
changed, and to focus on impacts to our work and preparations for the
shutdown.  Has ICRS already been cancelled and I have somehow not heard
this?  If not, is becoming more absurd by the day.  The world is quickly
closing down and it will never be the same again.  I am concerned that some
of us on this list will not survive this virus. Universities will close
down for a year or more- or will go to virtual classes, and few of us will
be able to get to our field sites to do our research.

We have entered the logistic growth phase of the virus and by April there
will have over a million cases, by May ten million, and by June possibly as
many as a hundred million, and still growing rapidly and out of control.
Experts say that 80% of the planet will become infected and that while only
3.4% will perish if we can flatten the curve, if we do not 5-8% could
perish.  I wish I were wrong, but look at the stats for yourselves.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/    Look to Italy with 60 million
people, and multiply by five and that is likely where the USA will be in
just three weeks- absolutely horrific.

Well-managed panic is considerably better than denial at this point, as
preparations might still be possible which could help save your lives in
the coming months.  The precautionary principle of science gets turned on
its head in situations like this - guilty until proven innocent.  Like with
a super-cyclone, if we over-prepare and it turns, then no harm done, but if
we under-prepare we stand to lose everything.

For information and education, please watch the Med Cram series for an
intensive short-course on the virus, which includes the published
literature on prevention (sleep,  Vit D3, Zinc, Chloroquine, and various
other anti-virals), and the cellular physiology behind the disease,  plus
the scientific evidence that NSAIDS like ibuprofen and aspirin may be
harmful with COVID-19 patients.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ_IRFkDInv-NvRRUN0aqe51sMs188k8z

To end on a positive note, all climate models will need to be recalculated
due to significant reductions in greenhouse emissions, and many positive
changes will take place in society as the failures of the present system
are clearly exposed:  resurgence of small scale sustainable farming,
decentralized industries, socialized medicine, immense political reforms,
etc.   It helps me to realize that COVID-19 might have  just saved the
planet.  Gaia hypothesis revisited?

Regards to you all,

Austin

Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
Corals for Conservation
Sustainable Environmental Livelihoods for the Future
P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
https://www.facebook.com/C4Conservation
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009j6wb
TEDx talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PRLJ8zDm0U
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
<https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/>


Sustainable Environmental Livelihoods Farm
Km 20 Sigatoka Valley Road, Fiji Islands
(679) 938-6437
http://
<http://permacultureglobal.com/projects/1759-sustainable-environmental-livelihoods-farm-Fiji>
teiteifiji.org
http://permacultureglobal.com/projects/1759-sustainable-environmental-livelihoods-farm-Fiji
https://www.facebook.com/teiteifarmstay
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/happy-chickens-for-food-security-and-environment-1/


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