The Real Story of the Covid Catastrophe is Larger Than You Know by Thom Hartmann

[yaesu]

Our planet is screaming a message at us, and Covid is part of that communication.The death of nature and the appearance of Covid are all part of the same thing.

I’ll never forget the day the trucker called into my radio show. It was at least a decade ago, and he identified himself as a long-haul trucker who regularly ran a coast-to-coast route from the southeast to the Pacific Northwest dozens of times a year.

“Used to be when I was driving through the southern part of the Midwest like I am right now,” he said, “I’d have to stop every few hours to clean the bugs off my windshield. It’s been three days since I’ve had to clean bugs off my windshield on this trip. There’s something spooky going on out here.”

The phone lines lit up. People from Maine to California, from Florida to Washington state shared their stories of the vanishing insects where they lived. Multiple long-haul truckers listening on SiriusXM had similar stories.



https://thomhartmann.medium.com/the-real-story-of-the-covid-catastrophe-is-larger-than-you-know-71f386bd21a2

[gab13by13]

1. It's been going on for a long time,

I remember one of my old albums from the 70's by Johnny Mayall. He had a song called "nature's disappearing," "soon the dumps will be to your front door."

[burrowowl]

2. Excellent article!

[Ms. Toad]

21. Yup.

Our (Nebraska) tree claims are still standing, but they are the only one for miles and miles.

[SharonAnn]

32. The 1930's "shelter belt" is still on my grandparents' South Dakota farm.

It is still in the family and the family knows the story about how close that generation was to starvation and the difference when the Agriculture dept under Roosevelt planted the shelter belts on the farm.

[erronis]

4. Well worth a full read. Thanks.

[yaesu]

22. yw 👍 I have learned a lot from Thom over a Decade of listening to his daily 12pmest-3pm show

Mon-Fri. I like to watch the Thom Hartmann show on his youtube stream because of the lively chat during the show. He's also on FSTV, sirius radio & lots of radio stations. I can receive his broadcast here on AM 820 Chicago, which has all the progressive shows. We need more stations like that to push back against all the RW radio stations.

[relayerbob]

5. Yes, it's very noticeable and disrutbing

[rickyhall]

6. Growing up in 60s and 70s all we talked about was "Zero Population Growth",

then we suddenly weren't. My grandparents had 4 kids, my parents had 3, my sister had 2, my brother & I had 1 each. My daughter had 5 and her 1st cousin had 6. It's like we've lost our fucking minds, determined to destroy ourselves. I just don't get it. My daughter tells me I'm just an old hippy like I'm wrong to give a shit. Doesn't make any sense.

[DBoon]

8. our attempts to make a better life are now dismissed with "OK Boomer"

Our inability to overcome the mighty obstacles of power and corruption are met with "you failed, Boomers"

[rickyhall]

11. Depressing, ain't it.

[Ferrets are Cool]

12. +1

[wnylib]

7. There is no doubt in my mind that

overprocssing of food is damaging our health and the health of the plants and animals on earth. The chemicals and plastics alone have a devastating effect on all life - human, plant, animal.

But I do not get the connection to viral diseases like covid, or to other diseases like the insect-born lyme disease. Our ancestors thousands of years ago lived lives that were much closer to wild animals and insects, due to things like hunting and living in thatched huts where insects and vermin abounded.

Viruses are not even alive. They are inanimate pieces of RNA and DNA that require a living host to replicate by invading and using our cells. Our distant ancestors also handled the blood and flesh of wild animals that they killed, skinned, drained of blood, and prepared for eating, whether raw or cooked.

We know that they encountered viruses, too, because DNA studies show that some Neanderthal DNA passed down to us had evolved as protection against certain types of viruses.

So, although I agree that we are severely damaging the planet, I do not see a connection betwern that and the development of viral diseases. I do see a connection between our modern lives and the ability of a virus to spread to humans around the world, due to our frequent travel and ability to carry something to the opposite side of the earth in a matter of hours. But that is a result of modern travel. It spreads disease but does not cause it.

[Jetheels]

10. Here's an article on why Lyme disease got so prevalent

https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/15651/

[wnylib]

29. I don't have the background to challenge

Yale researchers, but the article does raise some questions for me.

The bacterium for Lyme disease existed in North America 60,000 years ago, 35,000 years before Native Americans arrived in North America. It can be carried by birds and small animals. The article states that info. So didn't the bacterium have a very long time to expand via deer, ticks, birds, and small mammals, before our modern era?

Native Americans of the northeastern part of North America depended heavily on deer for meat and for hides to make clothing, and to make containers from the skins. So they handled freshly killed deer often. Wouldn't they have experienced infection with Lyme disease?

Native Americans also lived in small villages in the forests, in close proximity to birds and small mammals, which they trapped. Wouldn't they have been exposed to infection?

The article says that the reduced size of forests, and the truncation of them as people cleared lands for homes reduced the habitats for deer. It also says that the wolf population decreased so that deer lacked natural predators to keep their population down. But wouldn't a decreased deer habitat also cause a reduction in the deer population? Also, wolves were intentionally killed off in some areas to protect livestock, but in other areas, they moved to be farther away from humans. Wouldn't relocated wolves have shared the available deer habitats with them?

In the end, I'm not sure that it is necessarily our modern lives that have caused Lyme disease to spread among people. The bacterium has had several thousand years to grow and evolve, and to be spread by birds and small mammals. One factor of our lives not mentioned in the article is that the tick can be carried to people by pets that encounter the tick outdoors.

Lyme disease is also often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed even today. But, even so, it is modern medicine that has enabled us to recognize it. It might have existed in people long before now, but not identified by source and cause.

[Jetheels]

31. Here's a book on Lyme. I read the reviews only. Native Americans also lived around wild turkeys

and other animals that ate ticks. Also, the author believes that deer are not the only animal spreading Lyme, but it’s the rodents.

https://www.amazon.com/Lyme-Disease-Ecology-Complex-System/dp/0195388127

That book is kind of expensive though, and for me I mostly only read audio books.....
Here’s an article that author wrote, talks about how there used to be a much different landscape of trees, which supported animals who kept rodent population down.


https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180709132727.htm

[Bo Zarts]

9. Read Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring."

Published in 1962. She knew.

[BarbD]

15. But, we didn't learn the lesson.

[Ferrets are Cool]

13. Love me some Thom

[DENVERPOPS]

14. When I was a kid in Denver

we could go to any vacant lot in the city and catch a "horny toad" to keep as a pet. We could go to any pond and catch frogs and tadpoles.

I haven't seen any of these in over forty years in Denver or while hiking in the surrounding open space......

I think these abnormal weather events and the Covid are Mother Nature saying:

You are destroying MY planet, so I am coming after you...................

[bullimiami]

18. na. mother nature doesnt care if the earth is a paradise or a slag heap. it should matter to us.

mother nature will just move on evolving the new environment. with or without us.

[BComplex]

20. That's what people really need to realize.

It's a gift, and we're not doing it justice.

[keithhs28]

25. Whose Garden Was This?

'Tell me again, I need to know
The forests had trees, the meadows were green
The oceans were blue and birds really flew
Can you swear that was true?'

-Tom Paxton

[movingviolation]

16. We've lived our entire lives in the "fuck around" stage...

Now we get to live in the "and find out" stage.

[yaesu]

23. This

[Delmette2.0]

17. I was in Atlanta for a week in 2009.

I am very use to bugs and birds just about all year round. In Atlanta I first noticed the absence of bugs of any kind. Then I noticed that there were no birds. The two go hand and in hand. If we poison the bugs, we poison the birds. When the bugs are gone the birds won't come around.

I'm no expert, just a country girl with a bit of common sense.

[yaesu]

24. As Thom would say, you are spot on! nt

[Delmette2.0]

30. Oh, thank you.

[BComplex]

19. This is an excellent article by Thom Hartmann. Wow.

He nails it.

[Snackshack]

26. 100% right.

Unfortunately I think we are well beyond being able to do anything to avoid the change in our environment that is already coming. Today we are at 416.33ppm of CO2 in our atmosphere. Temp will eventually catch up to the CO2 level as it always has and the planet will be vastly changed. We will either learn to adapt or we won’t.

[RobertDevereaux]

27. Check out Tom's Hidden History series of books...

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=thom+hartmann+hidden+history+series&crid=1XUNBH6MFYYAK&sprefix=Hartmann+hidden%2Caps%2C213&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_15

From the Publisher
The Thom Hartmann Hidden History Series
The Hidden History Series includes ten paramount and timely books that break down the biggest obstacles of today, placing them in historic context and providing real, tangible calls to action both for individuals and society at large. Each book concisely addresses these pressing current issues and offers a set of solutions with “roadmaps” for individuals and communities to follow to create a more equitable and prosperous economy and a safer, more just society for all.

Thom lays out the ways in which inequality in America has shifted over the last 50 years and identify a handful of sensical, powerful solutions that address these issues at different levels, such as getting money out of politics, addressing social despair and economic inequality, strengthening democratic institutions of governance, and fighting fear.

[pansypoo53219]

28. the planet is trying to rid itself of the human infestation. we don't do lawn care.

no. pesticides.

[Martin68]

34. It isn't the planet. It is us. Nature doesn't commit suicide to eradicate humans, we do.

[Martin68]

33. The Midwest is used to grow vast monocultures of food crops that are treated with tons of deadly

insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides that inevitably spread in the air and water. Those bugs are not only a vital part of the food chain - they are also the proverbial canary in the coal mine.