5***** Egghead choice - crack open for a hard boiled think...

In February 2021 concerns across the globe are rightly focussed on the COVID-19 pandemic. Humans will survive this disease, and so far the global death toll is nowhere near the estimated 50 million dead of the 1918 flu pandemic.(1918 Pandemic (H1N1 virus) | Pandemic Influenza (Flu) | CDC)

Once the virus has been tamed the world will have to turn its attention to the climate emergency once more. This has the potential to be much more damaging to human life in the long run than the virus. The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26, HOME – UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) at the SEC – Glasgow 2021 (ukcop26.org)) will take place in Glasgow in November. Some commentators believe this is our last best chance to avert global disaster.

This would be a good time to read, or re-read, Collapse (2005)by Jared Diamond (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond). The author persuades us just how fragile is human civilization, and how environmental destruction is a slow form of human suicide...

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