Coronavirus: Some Provoking Thoughts

I hope to do a series on COVID-19

Today's piece is a quick and dirty history

and, also, some thoughts on global warming and governments

In the months after 911, I told our pastor that something had changed in 'the Heavenlies', and the world will never be the same again. That was followed by several plagues, SARS, the Bird Flu, etc., and by an increase in mostly Islamic terrorism. 

In 2008, we had that incredible stock market crash and serious depression. In 2011, the Arab Spring, and the beginning of the Syrian proxy war which is not over yet. In 2015, the consequences of the Syrian war and the rape of African countries by European colonialists came home to roost as millions of migrants made their way into Europe. 

In 2020, came COVID-19! It actually started in China sometime in 2019, but they managed to keep it hidden until a courageous doctor, now deceased, managed to announce it to the world around New Years. By then it had taken hold in Hubei Province and the bodies were beginning to pile up. China appeared to take very drastic action, which, in retrospect, should have come months earlier.

About the same time, doctors in Lombardy region, in northern Italy, began to notice people were dying from a strange form of Pneumonia. It was soon realized that that new type of Pneumonia which was how the Coronavirus claimed most of its victims.

It has now spread to most countries in the world. Some countries, like Canada, are somewhat prepared for it, because of SARS, while others are not the least bit prepared, like Italy and Iran.

In Hubei Province, 60 million people were locked down for nearly three months. Just yesterday, India locked down 1.3 billion people, one 6th of the population of the earth. Shelter-in-place orders are happening across Europe's most populated countries, with increasing penalties for those idiots who flagrantly ignore those orders. 

Cruise ships are being grounded, those that can find a port to take them in. Container ship traffic will be reduced significantly, if it hasn't already, as many factories making frivolous things for which the market is dwindling, are shut down. Large ships make a lot of pollution!

Airlines around the world are laying off most of their staff, some, all of their staff, as airports everywhere are closing, even to some domestic traffic. That's a lot of airplanes that are not flying.

Many businesses are shutting down, and most are likely to in the next little while. Videos from cities in most countries show empty streets during 'rush hours'. Boeing closed its Washington State production plants putting about 40,000 people out of work. That's a lot of commuters who are not commuting. 

Globally, probably close to a billion commuters are out of work or working from home, but not commuting. Taxi companies are laying off staff. 

In less than 3 months, Coronavirus has done more to reduce the CO2 in the atmosphere than any climate change heroics could do in 15 years. And it will continue for at least another couple months - much longer in countries where it is just arriving.

Wuhan has had its movement restrictions loosened just today. So there is a light at the end of the tunnel. How long that tunnel is we don't really know because of China's secrecy at the beginning. But certainly, it can be measured in months. We may not get completely rid of COVID-19 for a few years, if ever, but its dramatic effects will reduce greatly after some months, especially in countries with good health-care systems and sensible governments. I greatly fear for those countries where there is much crowding and poor health-care. This emergency will lead to draconian measures that might never be removed even after the virus is. 

A crisis is the most dangerous time

in the governance of any country

In Canada, Trudeau has embedded clauses that gives him and his Finance Minister sweeping powers to tax, to borrow, to spend without consulting parliament, in an emergency measures bill. The purpose is not to help Canadians, but to allow Trudeau to continue to govern with his minority without fear of being overthrown by a finance bill in the House of Commons. The clause was not for a few weeks or months, but for 21 months. This is playing politics at a time of crisis and is shameful.

Trudeau hasn't done a terrible job at managing this crisis until now, especially compared to some. Except that he has sunk Canada so deeply into debt that we have no budgetary room to handle this crisis. I have been warning us about this for years. Now, he will be borrowing at least 100 billion dollars over the next few months which means another generation of Canadians will be living off a fraction of their taxes as much of our tax money will go to pay interest on a more than $1 trillion debt. I can't see where the next three generations of Canadians will be able to pay this down, and, God-forbid, another crisis in a few years, or a few decades, and we will completely crash.

Politics trumps humanity

One good thing Trudeau and his Finance Minister could do to help a rapidly crumbling economy is to remove the carbon tax he so recently installed. Atmospheric carbon should be dramatically reduced this year, and if our climate 'scientists' are right, that should result in a significant drop in global temperatures sometime over the next several years. 

Right now, the carbon tax is useless as only essential workers and truck-drivers are driving. We should be encouraging these heroes, not punishing them for their heroics.

================================================================================================