THE HIGH PRICES WE PAY
Monday, May 16, 2022
What has changed over these past two years?
I’m not questioning what happens over decades, centuries or longer – just the last two years.
Did we get stronger, smarter, or healthier as a country or as individuals?
We certainly didn’t do a stellar job as a planet.
Or did we?
It’s too soon to tell the long-term impact of COVID-19 on our collective health, prosperity and progress as earthlings. The evidence of cooperation, coordination or efficiency by countries, the UN, the W.H.O., the CDC and many other NGOs, while remarkable in many ways, was poor in so many others. Still, science produced effective vaccines at record speeds – and we’ve seen all who wanted to get their shot(s). The third world is, as always, lagging due to poverty and logistics.
And to be fair, many good people remain committed to their anti-vax views. Some are on the lunatic fringe of conspiracy theorist wackos, but most are thinking people of conscience with opposing views.
And then, there is the ‘no COVID to be tolerated’ strategy of China, which refuses to accept western made vaccines. Time will tell whether that is right or wrong-headed. For now, it looks wrong, but in the fullness of time, truth will emerge.
So what’s next?
Many people are waiting for/expecting earth’s climate to change and believe that it will be catastrophic destruction. The pandemic-forced disruption to proactive steps on climate-action will take a back seat to the ‘righting the ship’ of commerce and supply chain issues taking priority, and climate concerns will shift to the backburner.
So, what’s next for everyone?
Food.
Not the price of, but the availability of, food.
North Americans will pay more. Europeans too. The world will pay a higher price than COVID and supply chain issues, greater than Putin/Ukraine atrocities – the loss of life to starvation and malnutrition is our biggest enemy. With so many distractions, will the leaders of countries on this planet get serious about solutions, or will each keep fiddling with politically expedient distractions?
So many things are priced in money.
We pay, we whine, and we continue on.
Too many things are priced in lives.
That we can change, but do we have the collective will?