Pandemic, ‘Great Reset’ and resistance

‘The Covid pandemic is a turning point, an opportunity to change. The reset we need now is not the creation of a ‘post-human, post-nature’ world defined by unregulated corporate-led growth of artificial intelligence and biotechnology. We need to balance digitalization and commoditization with an ecological reset, a way of living that respects the environment, promotes agroecology, bioregionalism and local communities. We need to raise our consciousness and understanding of humanity as a species in nature, our connectedness to each other and the rest of planetary life.’

Read here (IPS News, Dec 1, 2020)

How Trump damaged science — and why it could take decades to recover

‘As he seeks re-election on 3 November, Trump’s actions in the face of COVID-19 are just one example of the damage he has inflicted on science and its institutions over the past four years, with repercussions for lives and livelihoods. The president and his appointees have also back-pedalled on efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, weakened rules limiting pollution and diminished the role of science at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Across many agencies, his administration has undermined scientific integrity by suppressing or distorting evidence to support political decisions, say policy experts. “I’ve never seen such an orchestrated war on the environment or science,” says Christine Todd Whitman, who headed the EPA under former Republican president George W. Bush.

‘Trump has also eroded America’s position on the global stage through isolationist policies and rhetoric. By closing the nation’s doors to many visitors and non-European immigrants, he has made the United States less inviting to foreign students and researchers. And by demonizing international associations such as the World Health Organization, Trump has weakened America’s ability to respond to global crises and isolated the country’s science.’

Read here (Nature magazine, Oct 7, 2020)

The Covid-19 riddle: Why does the virus wallop some places and spare others?

This article delves into areas like age, cultural factors, heat and light, and early and strict interventions.

‘Time may still prove the greatest equalizer: The Spanish flu that broke out in the United States in 1918 seemed to die down during the summer only to come roaring back with a deadlier strain in the fall, and a third wave the following year. It eventually reached far-flung places like islands in Alaska and the South Pacific and infected a third of the world’s population.

“We are really early in this disease,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Research Institute. “If this were a baseball game, it would be the second inning and there’s no reason to think that by the ninth inning the rest of the world that looks now like it hasn’t been affected won’t become like other places.”

Read here (New York Times, May 3, 2020)

Congested Milan to turn roads into cycle lanes after drop in air pollution due to lockdown

‘Milan is preparing to launch an ambitious scheme to reallocate street space from cars to cyclists and pedestrians when it begins to exit its months-long coronavirus lockdown. The Italian city, which is in the hard-hit region of Lombardy, has some of the worst pollution in Europe and introduced a temporary daytime car ban earlier this year in an attempt to reduce high levels of smog. Motor traffic congestion has dropped by 30-75 per cent during Italy’s lockdown and officials in Milan hope to use the reopening of the city as an opportunity to turn residents away from car use.’

Read here (The Independent, April 23, 2020)

Use crisis to make post corona society fairer and sustainable, say scientists

‘In a manifesto published in Trouw, a group of 170 sociologists and environmental scientists from eight Dutch universities said that the disruption of economic certainties caused by the pandemic offers a chance for radical reforms. These could include the introduction of a universal basic income and debt cancellation for poor countries, the scientists state.’

Read here (Dutch News, April 13, 2020)