Major events causing loss of lives over the last 200 years:
1 – September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, 2974 lives lost
2 – San Francisco Earthquake, 1906, 3000 LL
3 – Galveston, Texas Hurricane 1900, 8,000 LL
4 – The Korean War, 1951, 36,914 LL
5 – The Vietnam War, 1968, 58,220 LL
6 – World war 1, 1914, 114,000 LL
7 – World War 2, 1941, 405,400 LL
8 – Covid-19 Pandemic, 2000, 534,000 LL
9 – The 1918 Flu Pandemic, 675,000 LL
10 – The HIV/AIDS Epidemic, 1983, 700,000 LL.
11 – The US Civil War, 1861, 750,00 LL
Notice any trends here?
Approximately as many Americans have died from the flu as from war. Covid, 1918 Flu, and AIDS accounts for 1, 312 million deaths. There were 1,367 million deaths in war.
Natural disasters accounted for 11,000 lives lost.
Terrorist attacks, 2,974 lives lost.
What’s the message here?
A. We probably should have treated the September 11, terrorist attack as a police action, and not as a war of occupation. Special forces should have hunted down Osama Bin laden. As it is, we occupied two countries and killed thousands while finally bringing down Bin Laden.
B. Natural disasters have been relatively benign. Climate change could affect that, however. Solution: get ready with strategies to lower temperature. Doable? Yes. For example: city domes, cloud creation, dramatic lowering of fossil fuel use.
C. Deaths from flu, like deaths from war, cut wide swaths through our love ones as well as ourselves. Covid and its variant Delta could create a chain reaction through out our communities that will surpass the total number of deaths caused by world wars. Solutions: set heavy mandates for every person to get vaccinations and boosters. For example: can’t attend school without vaccination; can’t enter restaurants without vaccination; can’t attend bars, dances, athletic events, etc. without vaccinations.
What is the future? Think two things: The Age of Global Flus and Climate Change.
Our future will be spent creating a world class medical emergency system, and a climate infrastructure comprising all cities and counties through
out the world.