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There were many warnings before 2020 that humanity’s most clear and present danger was a new pathogen and the global pandemic it could cause. AFP
THE Covid-19 pandemic is not over, but it is already clear that Lord Rees, Britain’s astronomer royal, has won his 2017 bet with the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker that “bioterror or bioerror will lead to one million casualties in a single event within a six-month period starting no later than Dec 31,2020.”
Last year, according to Johns Hopkins University, the SARS-CoV-2 virus claimed the lives of 1.8 million people. The global death toll could exceed five by Aug 1 – or nine, if one accepts the drastic new upward revision by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. It could have been worse, of course. In March 2020, some epidemiologists argued that, without drastic social distancing and economic lockdowns, the ultimate death toll could be between 30 and 40 million. Yet the cost of such non-pharmaceutical intervent
Posted on May 11, 2021 | Views: 211
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by Niall Ferguson: A major lesson of Covid-19 is that there is no distinction between natural and man-made catastrophes…
The Covid-19 pandemic is not over, but it is already clear that Lord Rees, Britain’s astronomer royal, has won his 2017 bet with the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker that “bioterror or bioerror will lead to one million casualties in a single event within a six-month period starting no later than Dec. 31, 2020.”
Last year, according to Johns Hopkins University, the SARS-CoV-2 virus claimed the lives of 1.8 million people. The global death toll could exceed 5 million by Aug. 1 or 9 million, if one accepts the drastic new upward revision by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. It could have been worse, of course. In March 2020, some epidemiologists argued that, without drastic social distancing and economic lockdowns, the ultimate death toll could be betw
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
The Covid-19 pandemic is not over, but it is already clear that Lord Rees, Britain’s astronomer royal, has won his 2017 bet with the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker that “bioterror or bioerror will lead to one million casualties in a single event within a six-month period starting no later than Dec. 31, 2020.”Read Full Article »
Comments Off on A World at Risk: Royal Astronomer Looks Ahead
CAMBRIDGE, UK, April 21, 2021 (ENS) – From bioengineered pandemics to city-ravaging cyber attacks to nuclear annihilation, life on Earth could soon change radically due to humanity’s impact on the planet, the United Kingdom’s Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, is warning.
Rees points out other dangers, too: population rise leading to shrinking biodiversity, catastrophic climate change, uncontrollable cybercriminals, plans for artificial intelligence that erodes privacy, security, and freedom.
“Our Earth is 45 million centuries old. But this century is the first when one species – ours – can determine the biosphere’s fate,” said Rees, who is also a founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risks at Cambridge University.