From the Aura of Sun to the Devil’s Door: A Brief History of Corona

Sengupta, Atanu and Hazra, Anirban (2020): From the Aura of Sun to the Devil’s Door: A Brief History of Corona.

Abstract

The spikes of sun give us a beautiful aura during solar eclipse. The spikes of a virus are the humanity is threatening. The new virus COVID19 is a sub group of coronaviruses. Such viruses are spike and cause few like diseases (SARS, MERS, and COVID19 etc.).Such viruses existed in wild animals long-ago. Long ago in 1798 Malthus wrote his famous book An Essay on the Principle of Population. He predicted that an over shooting of population over food grains production will create a pressure. This will lead to a Nature’s wrath. In the listing of wrath, Malthus mentioned some natural disasters. We thought Malthus was proved wrong by technological revolution (Lucas; 2004). However, probably he is now laughing in his grave. The push for food in Chinese Checker and the foray into the realm of wild fauna has probably ticked this virus. Now we are confronting a Malthusian wrath in a new form that pandemic of COVID19. Numerous socio-economic factors become important in the transmission, spread and mortality caused by COVID19. This short note tries to bring out the important of these factors in assessing the impact of COVID19. Whatever it may be COVID19 is teaching a lesson- a lesson to live in harmony with Nature. Are we prepared to learn this lesson? Or else our fate would be like dinosaurs in the remote past. It is this haunting reality that COVID19 forces us to learn.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Malthusian economics, man-land ratio, economic losses, inequality of losses
• Subjects: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q50 - General; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q51 - Valuation of Environmental Effects; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q54 - Climate ; Natural Disasters and Their Management ; Global Warming; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q56 - Environment and Development ; Environment and Trade ; Sustainability ; Environmental Accounts and Accounting ; Environmental Equity ; Population Growth; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q57 - Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services ; Biodiversity Conservation ; Bioeconomics ; Industrial Ecology

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