Time (February 9)
“Of all of the things that distinguish 21st century humanity from that of earlier eras, it’s our growing state of interconnectedness that has the greatest impact on disease spread. In 2019, there were some 40 million commercial flights worldwide, carrying about 4.7 billion passengers. For a virus, that’s the equivalent of 4.7 billion dandelion spores, each a potential carrier of its DNA, drifting to wherever the air-travel currents blow them.”
Tags: 21st century Humanity, Carrier, Commercial flights, Disease spread, DNA, Interconnectedness, Passengers, Virus
South China Morning Post (February 9)
“Coronavirus might be the world’s immediate challenge, but Antarctic heat record should worry us more.” Last week the temperature rose to 18.3 degrees Celsius in Antarctic. With “evidence of ice melting faster in the ‘doomsday glacier’, predictions of a 2-metre rise in sea levels seem more real.”
