Our Song

So we are six months into what infectious disease experts believe will probably be a two-year cycle, during which the human race will continue to absorb a major hit from Covid-19. That means 2022 is the new target date for any sort of return to normalcy.

This is very much what World War II had to have felt like in the early 1940s. Some big shocks have hit us, and the distant roll of approaching danger portends problems for a long time to come.

But the best understanding of what this enemy is doing to us and how unique that is is to compare it to other recent pandemics like Ebola. The difference is that Ebola is so lethal it kills its hosts (us) whereby Covid-19 mostly leaves us surviving but with substantially weakened bodies. There were only four Ebola cases in the U.S. during that pandemic. There are millions of Covid cases already.

The prospect for a vaccine is uncertain but let's be optimistic and say it will come at some not-too-distant point. There are some encouraging signs already. The unfortunate truth is it will not cure the disease or completely prevent it. What it may do, if we are extremely lucky, is help us suppress Corona-V to a limited degree.

That's why "flu season" will no doubt be renamed "Covid season." Every winter it will arrive with the coolor air, the rains and the snows. As is the case this year, it may also spike even in the warmer months as well.

So we will have no option but to fundamentally change our lifestyles. Not wearing a mask in public will become illegal, punishable by fines and in the case of repeated violations, imprisonment.

Going to prison will introduce new risks of infection and death. But society will have no choice but to segregate the stubbornly unmasked from our social commons.

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Everything I learn about this health crisis suggests to me that it is inextricably related to climate change. That is not a conclusion many others have reached yet, so let's hope I am wrong.

But regardless, the climate battle is one that requires us to engage on a number of fronts. One is related to a core passion of mine for the past 50 years -- the "Circle of Poison."  According to the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), "Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) recently petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to approve a new GE corn seed engineered to tolerate applications of not just one or two chemicals, but five — dicamba, glufosinate, quizalofop, 2,4-D and glyphosate."

If you've followed this issue at all, you will recognize this represents an unmitigated disaster for our common environment. Please visit PAN's site to learn more.

Then again, on the topic of climate change, there is some potentially good news. It's contained in the political evolution of Joe Biden, whose speech Tuesday promises a $2 trillion investment in clean, green, sustainable energy.

Biden is emphasizing that his approach will create jobs, which of course will become ever more desperately needed during this pandemic. He now recognizes that climate change is both the largest threat to our future but our best opportunity to strengthen our economy in socially responsible ways.

Accordingly, the choice this November will boil down to a choice based on future technologies vs. one based on the past.

Trump has made clear where he stands -- celebrating oil and coal production, which are declining industries that cause climate change. So all he can offer is nostalgia for a time gone by.

I'm part of his generation and therefore personally understand viscerally the appeal of nostalgia, wistful memories and the longing for simpler days.

The elderly know, of course, that our time here is more limited than it once was. And we're okay with that. We also can tell you all the nostalgic stories you'd like about the past but there are few kernels in any of them to grow the kind of garden we need for a viable future.

So it is time to discard nostalgia and embrace hope and turn that into action. The only song for our future is one we can sing for each other. In that spirit, I want to repeat the verse I published yesterday.

The key word in this song is "while." Let's make sure we sing this while we're still here in the world...

And you can tell everybody this is your song 
It may be quite simple but now that it's done 
I hope you don't mind 
I hope you don't mind 
That I put down in words 
How wonderful life is while you're in the world -- Elton John

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