A Teachable Moment –

NASA Earth Observatory images, based on data from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus satellite, show nitrogen dioxide emissions dramatically reduced over central China as the coronavirus outbreak brought cities to a standstill: NASA

The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson – 

PENSACOLA, Fla. — The news is changing so fast on the health and economic impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic that no matter what I write this minute and this day, it will likely be obsolete by tomorrow. But I do believe strongly that there is a potential teachable moment in here somewhere, if people will take the time to read, listen and share.

The last thing I want to do is downplay the global disaster unfolding before our very eyes. But if you think about it, it was predictable, and there are unintended consequences that could help humans learn to cope with the worst impacts of climate change — and learn how and why a little economic socialism is a good and necessary thing. Bear with me.

Even as President Donald Trump took to Twitter and TV on March 1 to assure the public not to worry about COVID-19, the mutating virus that moved from animals to humans and then from humans to humans in a province of China just a few months ago, a document surfaced from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency showing that at least some federal government intelligence officials were preparing for the possibility that the coronavirus could have a significant global impact.

A warning came as part of a Joint Chief of Staff daily intelligence briefing, first reported by Newsweek, that the National Center for Medical Intelligence was predicting that COVID-19 would “likely” become a global pandemic within the next 30 days.

Of course everyone who has been keeping up with politics for the past three years knows that Trump is not a fan of intelligence briefings, in writing or in person, so he likely missed the news.

As I write this, there are 321,268 confirmed cases of coronavirus around the world, with 13,699 deaths, and projections have the cases and deaths in the millions over the next few months before countries get a handle on containing it and it runs its course. In the U.S., there are 29,211 cases and 349 deaths, many of which could have prevented if the Trump administration and conservative states had acted sooner to contain it..

Worldometers

On March 12, I began asking federal and state officials if Spring Break was going to be canceled and beaches closed, but there was no indication that was forthcoming for a few more days, when first Alabama and then Florida began closing beaches.

Coronavirus Hits Gulf Coast Just In Time for Spring Break

While Washington state, California, New York and other major cities and states begin issuing stay at home orders, including Louisiana now, there is much speculation running rampant on partisan cable television news and social media about other steps that may follow. But we’re not going to get into conspiracy theories here. We are hunkered down and stocked up by the water here just north of Pensacola and will wait and see what develops.

Silver Linings

For those people with enough education and intelligence who are paying close attention, however, there are a couple of potential silver linings lurking in this dark cloud. So far you won’t find many experts willing to talk about these things, because everyone fully expects the coronavirus to run its course and for the economy to eventually recover enough for business to continue as usual.

The human survival trillion dollar question is, why should we allow business to go back to what it was? That’s what got us into this mess in the first place. Couldn’t we learn a thing or two from this crisis about how we might change our habits to prevent more debilitating disasters in the future?

The signs abound all around, if you are willing to look.

Pollution Drops

In countries and regions that have been under strict lockdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus, an unintended consequence is visible from space. As airports, businesses, industrial sites and factories closed down, as people stopped flying in airplanes and driving cars and trucks so much and the roads cleared, the amount of air pollution and heat trapping greenhouses gases began to fall sharply in places like China, Italy and even in the U.S.

Images from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus satellite, released on Thursday, show that nitrogen dioxide emissions — a serious air pollutant and a powerful warming chemical — fell by 40 percent over Chinese cities between December 20 and March 16.

This animation, using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, shows the nitrogen dioxide concentrations from Dec. 20 to March 16, dropped significantly.

“As nitrogen dioxide is primarily produced by traffic and factories, it is a first-level indicator of industrial activity worldwide,” Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s director of Earth Observation Programmes, said in a statement. “What is clearly visible is a significant reduction of nitrogen dioxide levels over China, caused by reduced activity due to COVID-19 restrictions, but also the Chinese New Year in January.”

“This is the first time I have ever seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event,” NASA air quality researcher Fei Liu said on NASA’s Earth Observatory blog.

Italy, which has now exceeded China as the country with the most deaths from coronavirus, has been under an emergency nationwide lockdown since March 9. It has also recorded a significant drop in nitrogen dioxide emissions related to reduced auto traffic and industrial activity.

Satellite images show that the most dramatic decline of air pollution was observed over northern Italy, the first region in the country to go on lockdown.

China’s health ministry says the city of Wuhan — the original epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic — and the surrounding Hubei province reported no new cases in the last 24 hours, providing hope in the global fight against the virus.

More evidence emerged in Venice, Italy, as officials and visitors reported seeing cleaner water in the famous canals and more visible wildlife.

‘Nature is taking back Venice’: wildlife returns to tourist-free city

This weekend, the New York Times even showed air pollution going down in major U.S. cities, although the science reporting staff has yet to talk about the positive impacts on global warming and climate change, showing instead skeptical reporting that this short term trend could be turned into a longer one.

Traffic and Pollution Plummet as U.S. Cities Shut Down for Coronavirus

Imagine if the United States actually had informed leaders in the White House who respected science, joined by leaders in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world, talking about the lessons to be learned here.

If humans would just re-adjust their lifestyles going forward — as they have been forced to do because of the coronavirus — to fly and drive less and stock up on food and other supplies routinely instead of driving to the store for little things nearly every day, we might learn to fight the worst effects of global warming and climate change as well as other health affects from air and water pollution.

Can we learn these lessons? Yes.

Will we? We will see.

Socialism is Good

Meanwhile, as even President Trump now seems onboard with bailing out devastated industries like the airlines and hotels and willing to authorize cutting U.S. Treasury checks to many if not all Americans, the people here could learn a thing or two about how socialism works, and why it might not be such a bad thing after all.

As Coronavirus Pandemic Spreads, Help May Finally Be On the Way from Washington, D.C.

While it looks like the presidential campaign of Vermont Senator and Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders is showing signs of being over soon, his message may end up resonating even with Republican politicians, although they will never admit it. We may not call it socialism, but what anyone with a working knowledge of Keynesian economics knows is that in our system, the federal government is the lender and spender of last resort. If we had a truly laissez faire free market libertarian capitalist system in place, imagine the health crisis and global depression that would ensue without government bailouts.

I doubt there are any Trump supporting conservative workers or voters, who are about to receive a check from the U.S. Treasury Department, with the unmitigated gall to stand on their principles of opposing federal government socialism by sending the check back.

Going forward, however, perhaps we can learn from the experience of other developed democracies around the world where a basic income for everyone and free education and health care are common place.

Kenny Rogers Dies

Kenny Rogers dies at 81: Google

As I close out my thoughts on this Sunday morning, and get ready to do a little subsistence fishing to practice edge of the world, end of the world survival skills, I want to end with a little story about Kenny Rogers. We found out he died this week at the age of 81.

Farewell, Kenny Rogers: If You’re Gonna Play the Game, Boy, You Gotta Learn to Play It Right

The first time I ever saw Kenny Rogers he was not quite famous yet. I was riding with a friend in the Sky Bucket looking down on the Six Flags Over Georgia park in 1969 and we began to hear music playing off in the distance. I will never forget this for several reasons. I was with my childhood friend Gary Leon “Pigeon” Brown, who first got me into playing the drums. He later died on death row, but that’s another story.

On that day, we were having fun at Six Flags. As we rode closer to the music, we could make out the strange hit song “Fire” released by Arthur Brown the year before in 1968. As the Sky Bucket came down, we saw the band. The drummer was sitting on a drum stool covered in leopard skin. When we got off the ride and ran over to see who was playing, we found out it was a band called Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. We watched for a few more songs, but I don’t recall what else they played that day.

Of course Rogers went on to become famous, and is best known as “The Gambler” from the movie and the hit song. I think I learned a thing or two about life from watching and listening to Kenny Rogers, especially knowing when to hold ’em, fold ’em, walk away and run. Maybe we can all learn a thing or two about when to stop driving and flying and and listening to corrupt politicians tell us socialism is bad. Someone should write a coronavirus pandemic song about that.