Let’s not waste this crisis and learn lessons from it

Total global military expenditure in 2019 was $1.92 trillion.With this astronomical sum man assembled and deployed weaponry on land, at sea, in the air, and in outer space to prevent any attack on his soil by friend or foe.The immense destructive power of these 21st century weapons has the awesome capacity to kill every living being on this planet four times over, yet this entire arsenal was rendered impotent and obsolete by a biological intruder measuring 65-125 nm in diameter. Man ruled and exploited the earth for 200,000 years. During this time he destroyed the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society depends for clean air, water, and everything else. We are killing and eating 300 mammal species into extinction. Since the dawn of civilisation man has caused the loss of 83 per cent of all the wild mammals and half of all plants, 80 per cent of marine mammals, and 15 per cent of fish.

The living world is disappearing before our eyes. Two-thirds of the tortoise and turtle species could be extinct within 20 years. In the oceans, three centuries of whaling has left just a fifth of marine mammals in the oceans. As we relentlessly exploit and decimate the ecosystem, we fail to realise that we are heading for a catastrophic showdown with nature. One million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction. We are dangerously threatening our life support systems which are fundamental to our existence. We use 54,000 ships to conduct unrestricted global trade, and in the process, we have dumped waste estimated at 1.9 million pieces of microplastic pieces per just one square metre of seafloor in many hotspots of the ocean.

Unless we repent and make amends, the next viral assassin will deliver the ultimate coup de grâce.