Nature Strikes Back? Really? Two charts to make us think.
Early on at the onset of the pandemic of our generation, nCovid-19 there was much talk about nature striking back at us as ‘revenge’ for all the harm that we have inflicted on her. It made me very uncomfortable as it seemed not only to misunderstand the nature of human existence on this planet, but also ignore the tremendous improvement in quality of life that we have had in modern societies. It is not my contention that we are in anyway living in a sustainable manner, but I think we should certainly acknowledge that the human condition has been that for thousands of years we have been at the mercy of nature and only in the last ~ 100 years or so we have won for ourselves a certain amount of respite. For nature is not just cuddly pandas, deer with dewy eyes and radiant sunsets but nature is also smallpox, diphtheria, tuberculosis, famine, cold, floods, poisonous snakes and predators that see us as prey! Two charts that brought home the point for me are shown ab...