Tue, 9:19: “It’s associated with a lack of food,” [virus researcher Raina Plowright] said. “If bats were feeding in native forests and able to nomadically move across the landscape to source the foods they need, away from humans, we wouldn’t see spillover.”
This is some scary shit. Still, there hasn't been nearly enough discussion over the past year about how much viral outbreaks are tied to human encroachment into previously untouched natural habitats, which would include climate change—very much the reason I have long detested suburban sprawl (a truly widespread killer of natural environments) and far preferred smartly planned urban density (which actually mitigates those effects). We have world leaders willfully ignoring the greater need for preparation than for far more expensive reactions after the train has left the station. Which is to say, once we inevitably do wind up with a virus as transmissible as COVID-19 but with a society-altering mortality rate . . . humanity will frankly have gotten no less than it deserved.
Tue, 17:36: I don't like horror movies as a general rule but I've seen enough of them to know I should always look in the back seat before getting behind the wheel.
