BEES, BIRDS AND WILDFLOWERS DON'T CARE

We humans are dying from COVID-19 by the thousands, but the rest of the natural world continues on, unperturbed. It is almost as if we did not really exist. Wildlife moves back into parks and towns; and sunrises and sunsets suddenly are more noticeable.  Blue sky is now more blue and the stars are actually visible and brighter.

The wildflowers are blooming, the birds are singing and the bees are fleeting from one flower to another collecting nectar and pollen.  They act like they do not have a care in the world, because they don't. Their world has not really changed.

George R. Stewart wrote the book EARTH ABIDES in 1949 in which he describes the after effects of a pandemic that kills 99.9+% of the human race. His narrative is written from the perspective of an ecologist and he describes what would happen to the United States, if humans were plucked from the planet.  He muses that the only creatures on the planet who genuinely mourn the demise of man, are the three species of the human louse.  He describes wildlife, domestic pets, and farm animals as pausing for a bit, adapting to the absence of humans and moving on. 

Rather sobering, isn't it.

Fortunately for us the COVID-19 pandemic is a lot less severe; and most humans will survive to assess the damage; with the hope of a better prepared future.  But we will never be the same. Modern humans have not faced a virus this contagious and deadly before. Our contentious attitude toward its spread, its treatment, its effects and the economic consequences it is creating, do not bode well for a unified world solution.

I just turned 80 years of age.  It would be cool if  I could come back every couple of years to see how humans have progressed.  It seems unlikely I will be granted such a wish, but we do not really know what is in store for us humans beyond the grave.