Understanding our interconnected world and COVID-19
Monday, March 16, 2020 - 11:10
in Paleontology & Archaeology
In his pathbreaking 1971 book, Barry Commoner outlined his enduring and succinct four laws of ecology: (1) Everything is connected to everything else; (2) Everything must go somewhere; (3) Nature knows best, and (4) There is no such thing as a free lunch. I suppose I always suspected that nature might know best and we should not trust technology. Nevertheless, half a century later I'm afraid it's too late to turn back and we need to double down on technology and hope we can invent our way out of the current mess. But as I have thought about this latest Coronavirus, I find myself returning to Commoner to understand the current crisis.