Coronavirus: Covid-19 is not a guilt trip

Dubai - Millions of us get up in the morning and do our little bit to love Earth because it is a wonderful world and it is the right thing to do.

Of all the forwards that really annoyed me, there are those sanctimonious, piety filled efforts on how we deserve the Covid-19 virus. That we have somehow plundered and pillaged Mother Earth and now she is getting back at us. Like this is nature's return match and we sort of deserve the punishment for the gouging and the tearing and the overall destruction of our planet.

No, it is not, for many reasons. Covid-19 is a virus that has literally created and mutated out of our stupidity in allowing animal viruses to cross the barrier to humans because they are turned into food that is eaten. Proximity is the cause. Covid-19 is the effect.

Second, nature might be teed off with this generation and the earlier one for its prodigious consumption and greed and cavalier dismissal of global warning, but there is no percentage in wrecking what is left.

This celestial warning is a pointless guilt trip. And I for one do not feel I have done anything so drastic in the pillage and plunder department to deserve cowering in a room with no idea of where this is going.

Paul Eddington of 'Yes Minister' fame was asked how he would like to be remembered. He said as someone who did very little harm.

I do believe most of us are like that. We do very little harm and we do not deserve this. For every mess-up by industry, commerce, the multinationals and the political cartels, there are thousands who do the right thing. They preserve, they protect, they heal and they mount guard.

So easy on the sack cloth and ashes and this instant guilt trip that is being thrown at us. I don't buy plastic. I might be a little careless with water. I do not dirty up the environment and if there is a little extra wastage I try hard to address that error in judgment.

And the odds are so do you.

Whether it is National Geographic or all those nature oriented channels or it is WWF (the panda has 5 million active members) or even Greenpeace, they fight the good fight. The Sierra Club was started in 1892 and has 1.3 million members and battles for the environment. In 1879 Earth First gave rise to a new awareness. To quote it: "Earth First! has survived attacks by moderates, would-be leaders and the agents of the system, remaining the most diverse, passionate, committed, and uncompromising group of environmental activists."

Then there is the formidable Forest Stewardship Council that functions out of 46 countries with a comprehensive agenda.

1. Prohibits conversion of natural forests or other habitat around the world
2. Prohibits the use of highly hazardous pesticides around the world
3. Prohibits the cultivation of genetically modified trees (GMOs)
4. Respects the right of indigenous peoples around the world
5. Controls each certified operation at least once a year, and if they are found not to comply, the certificate is withdrawn.

The largest of all and perhaps the most famous is the WWF whose motto is crystal clear: "We are committed to reversing the degradation of our planet's natural environment and to building a future in which human needs are met in harmony with nature. We recognise the critical relevance of human numbers, poverty and consumption patterns to meeting these goals."

There are over a hundred wildlife societies. They save tigers, rhinos, crocodiles, whales, dolphins, elephants and other wild life along with their habitat.

Get a load of this. At latest count, 1,190 multi-lateral environmental agreements and 1,500 bilateral environmental agreements among nation-states exist to govern natural resources.

The Centre for Humans and Nature has called for a global entity to handle those who are in positions of power and do nothing. A new governance institution is required to reverse these trends to protect Planet A, our home. Humanity is utilising the global environmental commons in an unsustainable manner, extracting resources at an unprecedented rate due to increased international trade, population growth, and personal consumption.

There is also the Natural Resources Defense Council which "works to protect wildlife and wild places and to ensure a healthy environment for all life on earth". The NRDC combines hundreds of active lawyers with over 1.2 million members to create direct and legislative change.

You get the drift. Millions of us get up in the morning and do our little bit to love Earth because it is a wonderful world and it is the right thing to do. So stop looking at Covid-19 as the pestilence due to us.

And if indeed I am all wrong and this is some reckoning then point taken. Now get off our backs.