If you actually want to create pandemics, then build factory farms.
Bird Flu: A Virus of our Own Hatching, Dr Michael Gregor (2006)
While it is true that many infectious diseases that have wreaked havoc on humans have come from animals, it is not entirely the case that ending the consumption of animals would put an end to such diseases. Limiting contact with animals, even assuming they are not being consumed by humans, would be necessary to lessen the chances that viruses and other pathogens transfer between species and infect humans.
In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
(Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot)
I find it increasingly easy to be misanthropic now.
Climate action malaise.
Zoonotic diseases (e.g. COVID-19, Japanese Encephalitis Virus).
Rampant speciesism.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and who knows what country next.
All unnecessary. All preventable.
I find myself speaking about homo sapiens in the third person more and more, despite (obviously) being a deeply flawed member of that species.
Despite a willingness to be conciliatory, to be a glass half full kind of guy, to encourage open, honest conversation, some days, I find it really really hard to have any hope that our species will mature quickly enough to significantly mitigate the coming climate catastrophe or to avoid decades more unnecessary suffering and death of the members of many species, but especially those that members of species homo sapiens use and abuse.
Every so often though, my spirits are buoyed and hope seems possible. That happened recently, when I watched this video.
Having said that, I do tire of the us and them phrasing of the title of videos like this (“meat eater” vs “vegan”). The content is positive and respectful though.
But there will need to be many more such intellectually honest, respectful conversations, before my view of the future is likely to be significantly perturbed.
Earthling Ed and Eric have the quintessential open conversation