[ExI] COVID-19 ecology

[William Flynn Wallace]

Pollution-free air, monkeys -it would be helpful to know where you are
writing from.  bill w

On Wed, Apr 1, 2020 at 1:55 AM Kunvar Thaman via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Yes. A few days ago, I was sitting in the backyard of my home, working
> away on my laptop. My father was sitting opposite of me. He whispered to me
> to stay still, and that there was a pair of monkeys behind me, on the wall.
> I turned and we quietly moved away. I had never encountered a monkey
> before. I like to stay outside at night sometimes and look at the stars.
> The sky is free of pollution and so clear these days. All the river
> cleaning projects needed lots of money are on hold because of covid, and
> the rivers are still getting cleaned up by themselves.
>
> People are sanitizing every surface they find, surely there must be some
> effects on the microbe level. Another thing I like about the lockdowns is
> that the noise levels, the constant chatter in the background of cars has
> been replaced with birds chirping. I find it very enjoyable.
>
> As for the spread of other viruses, since they are not alive when not with
> a host, they should not be impacted much. The house cats example would have
> some effect on the mouse population and that in turn could be a cascade
> effect. I'd like to hear more on this.
>
> &Kunvar.
>
> On Wed, Apr 1, 2020 at 1:00 AM Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> Maybe someone here or even in media has speculated on this... With over
>> seven billion people around, many of them discussing this pandemic, it’s
>> probably been mentioned but I’ve missed it. Anyhow, I was thinking that the
>> responses to the pandemic, especially physical distancing, must have an
>> impact on the wider ecosystem. After all, humans (and their pets*)
>> transport around microbes and macrobes (think of fleas and mites), and the
>> responses have mostly gone in the direction that would slow down if not
>> stop this living transportation network.
>>
>> I recall years ago reading about ‘citizen scientists’ swabbing railings
>> in major metro areas to see what kind of bacteria folks were carrying
>> around. I wonder if that sort of thing has been continued and if there are
>> reliable censuses that we can refer to to see if COVID-19 measures have
>> radically changed.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Dan
>>    Sample my Kindle books at:
>>
>> http://author.to/DanUst
>>
>>
>> * I’m used to interacting with cats and dogs on my neighborhood. That’s
>> basically stopped due to physical distancing. In fact, many of my neighbors
>> now keep their cats indoors all day long. This not changes/stops the
>> transport network, but will likely mean less predation by house cats —
>> another ecosystem impact.
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