Oct 2, 2018
Dear Moon, Lonely Elephants & Black Death
“This is a historical moment in the history of mankind. SpaceX BFR — Big Falcon Rocket is seen live as it exits the Earth’s atmosphere…” Said the TV anchor. Then from the inside of the BFR, “Dear mother, dear moon, dear earthlings, ohhh dear” said Mr Maezawa to the sight of the moon as it revealed with all its wonder and glory to the passengers on board of the BFR, a sentence to be remembered by many.
2023 is most likely to be remembered as the year humanity made it’s way to the moon, the only event in human history to have more ‘Live’ views then the FIFA world cup happening every four years.
Think again! As 2023 might be remembered as the year the last African elephant walked the earth and as the year where the big plaque known to all as the Black Death wiped over ninety percent of Africa’s population and about a fifth of the world’s total population before it could be stopped.
“An outbreak of both bubonic plague, which is spread by infected rats via flea bites, and pneumonic plague, spread person to person, took the lives of more than 200,000 people in Uganda the last three weeks and spreading to nearby countries.
The disappearance of a keystone species as the elephants, have brought to a massive growth of hundreds of millions of small rodents such as rats which are fleeing forest fires into towns.” said the World Health Organization director to reporters in Geneva and added “a deadly plague epidemic appeared to have gone out of our control, the fleas that carry the Yersinia pestis bacteria that causes the plague have proven to be widely resistant to chemicals and insecticides. The issue is very serious and we hope to resolve it the soonest possible.”
WAIT! WAIT! WAIT!
Could that REALLY happen?
The answer is a clear YES!
In the 14th century, in a matter of few years only, the Black Death killed 50 million people, or 60 percent % of Europe’s entire population. This brings us nowadays to the elephants with an effect on the environment which is disproportionate to their population. Hence it will be nothing short of devastating. In other words, as go the elephants, so go the Savannah and the forest and the rest as we call it is ‘history’.
Elephants are still being barbarically killed at the hand of poachers at a faster rate than they are being born. Heartbreakingly, 35,000–50,000 are slaughtered annually for their ivory tusks — which means population levels are falling and heading for extinction.
Indeed, poaching attracts a lot of media attention, but it’s only part of a big picture. Elephants will extinct not only due to elephants poaching but also due to climate change, and humans taking over their lands and water (urbanization, expanding settlements and roads, crop-based agriculture, fenced plots). With optimistic estimates putting the elephant population figure at under half a million, at the rate they are being killed, elephants will be extinct in twenty short years. The notion that we will lose these complex, empathetic and intelligent majestic animals if something is not done, is not only devastating for emotional reasons, it will also have an extremely detrimental effect on the environment.
A point of no return — Once we pass a threshold, there would start an unstoppable domino effect in the animal kingdom which would eventually overlap our existence.
A quick calculation would show us that: The number of elephants is less than half a million. The average weight in tons of an adult elephant is 5ton (5000 kg).
5 * 5,000,000 = a number that will need to be partly/fully filled by other herbivores and grazing animals big and small. Meaning, that’s not even taking into consideration the weigh in millions of tons of other big grazing mammals that will surely also disappear, same as Hippopotamus and Rhinoceros, leaving more space for smaller and opportunistic animals.
The equal in small animals to fill in the ecological gap is HUGE. A small mammal such as the field mouse weigh on average between 100–200 gram, what means, about 50000 mice per elephant.
Currently there are millions of small rodents across the African continent, caring vectors for some of the most deadly sicknesses humanity ever experienced. Small rodents such as mice and rats multiply exponentially (S-strategy), about every 3 weeks a new generation in big numbers, meaning the rate of them becoming billions and trillions is less than a year.
Think of it: the next world billionaires and trillionairs are not going to be entrepreneurs in blockchain technology but small rodent entrepreneurs in Africa.
THESE RODENTS ARE CARRIERS OF VECTORS OF THE MOST DANGEROUS DISEASES FOR HUMANITY!
Whether people get the disease from fleas, infected animals, or from each other, once it becomes airborne, it can generate a public health crisis. Plague is now treated with antibiotics, and can be prevented by applying insecticides to eliminate infected fleas.
Noah Harari, a famous Israeli historian, is admired by many, not as he is telling something we didn’t know, but as he is playing the courageous boy shouting ‘The King Is Naked’, and then we all start to laugh, and cry, and laugh and die about it all again.
Harari reminds us of the recent issue of The New York Times Magazine on global warming. In the 1980s, we knew this was gonna happen and we didn’t do anything about it, and now we’re suffering the consequences. Same again, we know this is going to happen and yet, again, we cannot seem to keep ourselves from doing the very thing that’s going to ultimately destroy us. These are challenging time for the whole humanity, if we are not to care Mother Nature then we are to suffer, I know this is not a new message and we have heard such prophecies and predictions in the past, but the fact is that no one listens for real. After living in Hong Kong for about seven years I have found out that it is not that people don’t care, it is just that they are too busy to stop and do anything at all until it is too late. Understanding human nature, it is a natural behavior for people to expect the government to take care of them or for someone else to go and do the hard job, go and start the ‘revolution’ (or better say a `paradigm shift`).
Some of you might say, obviously our advanced medicine, research centers and AI will help us in our quest against time to stop the next plaque, but think, it would take a few months before we could stop it complete. Just think about the frequent flights on a daily basis in and out of the African continent. Nowadays we can easily round the world as it is for a fly to round an apple. Globalization is not just Google and Facebook, and of artists from all around the globe traveling together to the moon as part of the same family, it is also us introducing and carrying invading species including maladies and parasites around the globe.
Dear earthlings, there is no way out. It is just a matter of time before the worse happens. There is an ancient moral story of the eight elephants that wished to wake the dreaming dragon. Their goal was making sure human will not find the divine crystal ball under her armpit, to use it for harm. They all started suggesting various ideas, one of them said, “let’s hide the crystal ball on the moon, there human will never reach and therefore able to do any harm.”
The eight’s elephant said, “one day human will also reach the moon”.
Everyone asked the eight’s elephant “so you tell us, where to hide the crystal ball so human will not use it for harm?”
You know what he told them? He told them, “we hide it deep in their soul; there they will never seek so deep.”
Dear brothers and sisters, together we can fight climate change, together we can reduce demand for ivory and help protect elephants in their wild habitats for future generations. We can help Africa remain a vibrant tourist destination where these gentle giants generate significant income for local families just by roaming their natural habitat. We can reduce organized crime activities that threaten communities.
We can save mankind and make sure our grandchildren will also see elephants and reach the moon and farther.
Last words for now, Maezawa, an art lover and collector, is planning to take six to eight artists with him — and what about taking a plush elephant? The goal of the mission, which Maezawa calls #dearMoon, is to help spur the creation of great art that will inspire the whole of humanity.
Let’s make sure these courageous travelers will have a world to return to and they can still view elephants running the savanna even from up in space.
Let’s make sure 2023 is going to be remembered as a beginning of a space golden age of voyages toward new planets for mankind to explore and eventually settle in.
Whatever we can dream of can be achieved. We can destroy or we can cherish, the choice is ours.
As we join together, forming networks of human concern, we will find the wisdom; we will find the strength,
Raising humanity on a new path, it all starts with you, & you & you…
With playful regards
Galorian
#lonelyelephant #blackdeath #lonelymoon #elonmusk #2023 #spaceX #BFR #YusakuMaezawa #dearmoon #climatechange #globalwarming #noahharari #bubonicplague #pneumonicplague
Not So Much Fun Facts
Elephant numbers have dropped by 62% over the last decade, and they could be mostly extinct by the end of the next decade. An estimated 100 African elephants are killed each day by poachers seeking ivory, meat and body parts, leaving only 400,000 remaining
Call 4 Action
I used the year 2023 as an example, study show that within maximum of twenty years from now elephants and most big mammals will be extinct unless.
Elephants are running out of space and time. Before we know it they will be gone and many other species which are part of our ecosystem. Human are running out of time. Before we know it we will be gone. But there is always an alternative, no one knows the future, and it is for us to co-create a better future for all.
