Quite literally millions of birds worldwide are being slaughtered out of fear. The fear is that the newest strain of flu they have gotten is going to find a way to mutate into a human virus, and start infecting all of us, potentially killing a good portion of the human species, a la the plague or even the flu epidemic of the 1920's (I think that's when it was. It killed millions, but not a whole lotta birds, 'cept for chicken soup....)
sorry about that run on sentence.
I just have this image of progression in my head: dinos, after the extinction of the biggest of them, becoming birds. Birds getting steadily smaller and lightweight. At one time the larger ones may have fed on the smaller of our ancestors; we in turn started feeding on the more catchable ones of the birds. Eventually we domesticate what will become the common chicken, in all its forms, and it becomes one of the mainstays of diets around the world, both in its unrealized young (eggs) and its adults (KFC.)
We have in fact become so dependent on the chicken, that the latest outbreak of this flu, in Africa, (our starting point, incidentally) threatens to destroy not only potential economy, but one of the most important food sources for the incredibly large poverty stricken section of the population. Somehow, it feels like Nature getting even with us for the arrogance, yet again. The next thing that needs to happen is a fungal infection of the most common rice types around the world. (There are hundreds of types of rice, grown all over the world, at all altitudes. If you only know Uncle Ben's, you might as well eat at McDonald's.) The most common food eaten daily, and sometimes the only meal eaten all day, is rice. Attack that successfully and one guarantees the demise of much of our two legged species.
We really are a foolish bunch, aren't we? And getting worse! Americans have such a restrictive diet that if our food sources dried up for one reason or another, a good percentage of us wouldn't be able to go on. We would be mortified by what might have to become food, as it is around the world: bugs. The single largest source for protein among humans around the world is bugs. Yeah, I ain't too keen on the idea of sucking back on of them big fat beetle larvae I have seen some aborigines eat, but at least it ain't starving. Hey some dude in NYC made a popular dish out of what way too many seamen have spent HOURS trying to get off of their boats: barnacles. Yup. Gourmet meal......I swear humans will eat anything that ain't nailed down. Evidence? Sushi. Ick.
anyway, I do digess. There is some weird cycle of exchange building in my head about the relation between our evolution, bird evolution, and this flu's evolution. The mere fact that Nature keeps trying to produce epidemics that directly affect us should be some kind of clue that we need to heed. There is a reason that She is tryng to find a way to curtail our population, and even drastically reduce it, violently, if need be. Any dog that can still fight will do whatever it takes to be rid of a flea infestion. That's all we really amount to on this planet, when one admits to the misbelief that we are "special" in the Creatour's eye. Still, a dog can have many fleas, and it not be an infestation. I wouldn't call it symbiosis exactly, but they can live together, as long as one respects the other to a certain point. we have forgotten that respect, and She is demanding repayment.
I will be curious as I continue to age to see exactly what starts happening to the species as these collectives of diseases, plagues, droughts, floods, famines and other such "natural" disasters become more and more frequent. They have in the relatively short time since I was a kid and started paying any attention to such thngs. What will happen to our grace and dignity, supposed hallmarks of our blessed-ness among the living things of the world, when faced with the inability to stop the reshaping of the planet's face through its own actions.
I daresay it might be one time I will be glad that my son never knew this world.