Rules of thumb: fewer guns on the street, fewer deaths in the town, more miles driven by the fleet, more accidents occur, fewer contacts, fewer infections, more smoking more cancer, less education more abuse more violence, more weapons of mass destruction more mass destruction.

As 2023 pushes its way in, mankind’s future is at stake from threats of nuclear carnage, rejection of democracy as political nationalism gains ground, increasing population inequality from food shortages to misappropriation of artificial intelligence, and the slow breakdown of biology‘s evolutionary organization as global temperature rises. The potential devastation posed by nuclear weapons is the greatest hazard to life on earth. The nuclear threat has the potential to bring about life’s extinction on earth within one hour.

An icebreaker cleaves through arctic ice floes collecting information on disastrous changes from manmade climate change. The meltdown of its ice has caused the whiteness of snow to change its hue as more radiation is absorbed from the heavens to warm the ice. Consequently, the miracle of the whiteness of snow has given way to a vicious cycle and global warming may surpass 1.5 degrees centigrade.

Frequent warnings about the status of man and his environment have been given by scientists and science, poets, and politicians. A Polish Nobelist in literature told us that there are those who know well what is going on and what it is all about but are pushed aside by politics to make way for those who know little and as little as nothing.

More recent ones include The quest for truth has been abandoned, and in its place sits a dystopian delegation of groupthink that endangers all the pillars of human understanding, from Timothy Mounce and Let us listen to the voices that are at the forefront of the world by a Russian poet or As citizens, we must prevent our politicians from pursuing insane brinksmanship from John Scales Avery.

President Kennedy said every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when the planet may no longer be habitable and that while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. Vaclav Havel told the US congress that mankind runs the risk of an earth-shattering moment triggered by man’s genius and the force of nuclear weapons.

Using a complex computer simulation Jay Forester forecasted the planet’s chances of survival or demise using several variables to indicate the quality of life as an outcome. One outcome scenario of demise would kick in about now when an overpopulated world drowns in its own pollution. The climate crisis may result in seven and a half billion people paying the price of a degraded planet by 20 fossil fuel companies directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions registered today.

We shall never know whether any youngster returned home from the first Children’s Crusade. Recently a new children’s crusade got underway symbolized by Greta who has called upon politicians to put their faith in science. Will it happen? "There's no time for us...There's no chance for us"

Long before evidence-based medicine and life-long learning, Asklepios said to Hippocrates his student: we have an opinion… let’s consider it ... if it is not confirmed we can change it while Socrates awaiting hemlock called on a singing soldier to sing the song he liked again; before he died, he wanted to learn yet another thing.

Epidemics are varied and not infrequent and have their fatality rates or population loss estimated; one-third of Europe in the aftermath of the black death, 50 million dead with the Spanish flu and dengue in Greece coming from the Middle East, infected 80% of the Greek population, killed 3000 people and had a fatality rate of 6%. Causation is hard to come by, and uncertainty is hard to deal with. Superstition and conspiracy can take over.

Then came Covid, and then came war! Neither Covid nor the war in Ukraine has left us. A hypothesis, as a result of heat our auto-immune system is compromised and the emergent agent’s survivability grows, man’s vulnerability grows. climate change means biological systems falling apart and coming undone. special interests are placed ahead of humanitarian interests. Everyone can do something to help or hinder the world’s response to the ongoing public health threat from the coronavirus or betacoronavirus, now designated COVID-19. It is also referred to as SARS-CoV-2 and like MERS-CoV (Middle East) and SARS-CoV (Asia), it emerged from an animal reservoir. Scientists are profiling the DNA sequence of the virus, developing rapid tests to determine if the infection is present before symptoms show, and using complex mathematical models to predict future spread.

A direct, practical, and positive way to help is by the application of standard approaches to personal hygiene and sanitation. Another way is by listening and learning from experienced individuals such as mothers and teachers, experts such as doctors or wise philosophers. Yet another is through an improved understanding of reality by learning activities that target the cultivation of critical thinking and a more positive vision of science concerning the current threat.

The following group activity is useful if you participate! Usually, individual participation follows the 20/80 principle, 20% do the work while the other 80% participate in the glory. It’s up to you! It was elaborated within two different contexts namely an Asian context. It can be done in schools, higher learning institutions, and during post-graduate training to encourage and allow contributions and questions as well as the formulation of ideas on existential issues in a two-way communication process (facilitator-participants). It can be done at home, in the pub, and in the coffee shop. The number of participants should be restricted to permit an inter-participant space to one and a half meters; the space should be frequently aired.

Backdrop: Our world is being hit by a growing frequency of disasters and epidemics, pandemic flu, SARS, measles, West Nile, MERS, zika, dengue, and ebola. Such events are disruptive to health, damaging to society, and undermining the global economy. The management of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is placing great strain on global, regional, and national capacities. An extrapolation of where it will take us is a risky business but the writer suggests that it will be contained within China with 150,000 cases and a fatality rate of 2.5%. The world is still not out of the woods with the new strain of coronavirus and just as a forest fire can suddenly take a new direction as winds change or firefighters reduce the fury of one front, the ongoing epidemic can shift course. Herein, we hypothesize that it is only a matter of time before one emerges, becomes truly global and is exacerbated by climate change. Consequently, preparedness should focus on prevention, protection, and population resilience, a reinvigoration of interdisciplinary public health and its Schools and Institutions, and scientifically informed policy. Optimistically, ruling out the nuclear threat, pessimistically, climate change means biological systems falling apart and coming undone. The best case outcome can prevail when the preparation of society is optimal and where population vulnerability is minimized by public health policy, measures and practice. One concern of the WHO is with those countries with weak infrastructures for health, another is that of the weak UN as the world revisits victim blaming of marginalized groups as scapegoats and sources of pollution as well as anti-Chinese prejudice.

Introductory discussion within the group: do you agree or disagree that there is a need to strengthen the governance - management of public health and facilitate the construction of a human security "umbrella" or sanitary shield in the event of any future disasters? That the world is preoccupied with “business as usual” (commercial food processing, extraction of fossil fuels) and less with ensuring the health and safety of the public? And even though it is on high alert and with people demonstrating fear and anxiety and that special interests are placed ahead of humanitarian interests, which depletes public trust?

A question to ponder: how bad climate change will be for health as temperature rises, as storms, hurricanes, flooding, forest fires, and heat waves arrive more frequently with water shortages, desertification, and food scarcity I ask you to imagine a new generation of infectious agents emerging in the middle age of climate change.

Some background information: In 2019, our lifeline eco-system was further degraded by fire; Greece, Africa, the Arctic, Indonesia, West China, and Ukraine, and fires down below, Australia; dissatisfaction with democracy runs at an all-time high, dementia-depleted consciousness endangers humane society, nuclear weapons are an immediate threat to the existence of life on earth while to many climate changes incredibly, is a trumped up hoax. . A new strain of coronavirus emerged in China, which will surpass SARS "Chinese Chernobyl.” in its ease of transitivity and threatens to become endemic, like influenza. Autoimmune systems are being stressed. Smallpox a past leading killer of millions can be re-introduced through negligence or by design.

White a failing miracle: 50% of Arctic ice has melted over the past 50 years and the miracle of whiteness of snow has changed gradually to a hue now absorbing more radiation from the heavens to warm the ice. The icebreaker polar stern cleaves through an arctic ice floe on an important scientific expedition collecting information on disastrous changes from manmade climate change.

Consider the following scenario in some depth: you are to consider three 3 populations-communities living in locations distributed roughly along the same longitude from north to south from the pole to the equator. They have an average population of 75,000 people with roughly the same demographic makeup. They are located in Siberia, Greece or Egypt your choice, and Africa close to the equator. Water problems are more aggravated further south, food is becoming more of an issue north and south, and pollution is greater further north. Health surveys refer to malaria, measles, and alcoholism. Doctors note increasing autoimmune diseases. Consult the internet on fires, floods, and other disasters in the three areas and profiles of atmospheric carbon dioxide and earth temperatures.

Do diligently: Examine how body organ systems will respond over time as carbon dioxide accumulates and earth temperatures rise 1, 2, and 3 degrees (Heart, Pulmonary, Endocrine). Consider the following scenario in some depth: You are to consider three 3 populations-communities living in locations distributed roughly along the same longitude from north to south from the pole to the equator. They have an average population of 75,000 people with roughly the same demographic makeup. They are located in Siberia, Greece or Egypt your choice, and Africa close to the equator. Water problems are more aggravated further south, food is becoming more of an issue north and south, and pollution is greater further north.

Health surveys refer to malaria, measles, and alcoholism. Doctors note increasing autoimmune diseases. Consult the internet on fires, floods, and other disasters in the three areas and profiles of atmospheric carbon dioxide and earth temperatures.

With due diligence: Examine how body organ systems will respond over time as carbon dioxide accumulates and earth temperatures rise 1, 2, and 3 degrees (heart, pulmonary, endocrine).Chart what might happen to all organ systems over time (renal, CNS). Select a few health indicators and intuit (make an informed guess) what will happen to them. What will happen to society with respect to poverty and inequality as climate change continues?

Chart what might happen to all organ systems over time (renal, CNS). Select a few health indicators and intuit (make an informed guess) what will happen to them. What will happen to society with respect to poverty and inequality as climate change continues?

Final discussion within group. Examine the following statements:

a) The world is still not out of the woods with the new strain of coronavirus and as thinking beings, we have to wonder which system will collapse next: another part of the environment as a result of climate change; health from a global pandemic; a button pressed initiating nuclear conflagration; the collapse of an economic or banking network, a time when artificial intelligence might take over or some other unexpected disaster for which we are ill-prepared.

b) At the apocalyptic moment of either a nuclear conflagration or over the coming decades of gradual planetary warming millions of years of evolution can unravel and the complexity to sustain human consciousness can disintegrate.

P.S. Two different events and both labeled pandemics between 1918-1928 namely:

1) the Spanish flu, which infected about one-third of the world population, killed between 50 and 100 million people and a case fatality rate of 2.5 percent.

2) Dengue fever in Greece, which entered from the Middle East infected 80% of the Greek population, killed 3000 people, and had a fatality rate of 6%. Causes of Spanish flu; Aspirin/German agents; Cures for dengue; black flag.