Image of Zika virus from the CDC/ Cynthia Goldsmith (http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/details.asp?pid=20541) [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsThere is still so much that we don’t know about Zika. I was recently speaking with a medical historian who wondered if people in eastern Africa and Asia might have resistance to the disease, since it originated in those areas, or whether the epidemic will spread as explosively as it did in South America? Will the rate of birth defects be lower in newly affected countries, because mothers have more information to protect themselves? Which species of mosquito will be able to transmit the virus? How rapidly will the epidemic spread? What percentage of babies born to mothers infected with Zika will have neurological issues, even when they do not have microcephaly?
There are a few useful resources that I’ve found for Zika. Vincent Racaniello is a highly respected virologist, who has a popular podcast called “This Week in Virology” or “TWIV,” and a free online virology course. His lab spent decades working on polio, but recently shifted its focus on Zika. His new blog, Zika Diaries, give a sense of what science is like in an emerging field. Nothing is easy for the lab, from obtaining the virus, to acquiring permission to do experiments with mice.
One of the first tools that I try to create when working on an article is a timeline for events. With Zika, Ben Hirschler at Reuters has already done that work, and created a detailed timeline.
For anyone interested in the early history of Zika’s discovery in Uganda, I recommend Thomas K. Grose’s piece on NPR, which discusses a researcher studying Alexander John Haddow’s records in the University of Glasgow archives. Overall, NPR has outstanding coverage of the Zika outbreak.
“This photo is of a pair of Thylacines, a male and female, received from Dr. Goding in 1902.” By Baker; E.J. Keller. [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsIn my “Introduction to International Studies” course my students this spring watched a TED talk by Stewart Brand that discussed the idea of bringing back extinct species. This idea has attracted a great deal of media attention, but major challenges remain As my students pointed out, there is distinction between bringing back an individual and bringing back a population. Population geneticists typically say that the minimum size for a viable population is fifty genetically distinct individuals. Even if one thylacine or passenger pigeon could be brought back, how could a population with sufficient genetic diversity be recreated? What would the experience of an individual animal that was brought back be like, if it was the sole member of its species in existence?
My students also asked the question: “Where do we draw the line in terms of time?” Do we bring back passenger pigeons? What about mammoths? Other ancient species?
Still, work in this area is moving forward quickly. Scientists are working to insert the DNA of mammoths into elephants, which might succeed in creating a viable population, although they note that much work remains. Would such an animal, however, truly be a mammoth? Efforts that do not depend on cloning –such as the TaurOs project, to restore the auroch- seem much more likely to achieve success. Despite the accelerating rate of technology, I believe that deextinction is more distant than most media coverage might suggest. Of course, I would love to be wrong, and to be able to travel to Tasmania to view thylacines in the wild.
My students, however, often suggested that more effort should be put into preserving existing species, such as the California condor, before investing in reclaiming lost animals. One of my students said that this technology should be used to help save the northern white rhino, for which there are no breeding pairs in existence. While students loved the idea of seeing extinct animals brought back, they felt that the environments in which they lived had to first be preserved for this effort to be meaningful.
That said, a few students felt very strongly that all of humanity had a strong moral responsibility to bring these species back. Some students also argued that bringing back extinct animals will also benefit entire ecosytems, so that the impact on the species alone wasn’t the major issue. One point that all students seemed to agree upon was that there is a difference between a species that has recently gone extinct due to humanity’s influence, and ancient species. Nobody wanted to see dinosaurs brought back.
I think that it’s helpful to have a succinct definition of Global Studies. I’ve discussed possible definitions before in this blog, but my thoughts have evolved with time. I’ve also tried to come up with an answer that’s a single sentence.: “Global Studies is the interdisciplinary exploration of global issues in a way that refers to globalization in all its forms, whether economic, political, cultural, digital or biological.”
I think that to study any major issue entails an interdisciplinary perspective, which is why I’ve placed that term at the forefront of the definition. I also think that it is helpful to use the term “global” rather than “international” for two reasons. First, anything that happens in another country can be conceived of as “international,” no matter how limited in scope. Second, what is distinct in our field is how it looks at processes at a global level, which entails some engagement or relevance beyond any single world region. This approach entails a broader perspective than that entailed by an issue that may cross only a single border.
In less than six minutes, this brief video from WorldPopulationHistory.org covers two millennia of the earth’s population growth. The final 20 seconds are visually powerful, and make clear why it is impossible to discuss environmental issues without addressing population.
Like many people, I came across Edward Tufte’s book the Visual Display of Quantitative Information years ago and was fascinated with the charts and images that it contained. The graph that showed the diminishing size of the French army in Russia, matched against weather conditions, is terrifying in its simplicity. I do think that when people can see data, they can grasp abstract concepts that they might not have the time or patience to engage otherwise. For this reason, I love this new GIF by Ed Hawkins of the University of Reading, which shows the increase in global temperatures between 1850 and 1916. This might be a good tool to embed in a course shell during the “Environment” week of an “Introduction to International and Global Studies” course. On my version you will have to double-click the GIF to activate it; you can also view it here:
Ed Hawkins GIF of global temperatures through time. Please double click to activate.
Recently a Canadian professor, Dr. Amir Attaran, called for the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro to be delayed or moved because of the risk that the wave of visitors will accelerate the spread of the Zika epidemic. The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Tom Frieden, has now weighed in to argue that the risk to the athletes is small, and many people are already traveling to areas affected by Zika. The Games should therefore move forward as scheduled. Still, it is remarkable that this close to the Games, people are suggesting that they moved, not only because of Zika, but also because of other concerns such as contamination of the waters in the bay of Guanabara. One recent study found that virus levels in the bay were 1.7 million times the permissible limit in California. I confess that when I read this figure my first thought was not for the athletes, but rather how many times I had swum in these waters myself. Sailors are also complaining about the sheer quantity of garbage in the bay, and are concerned that impacts with the trash may affect races.
In the end the games will move forward, and likely will be a success. In the future, however, the experience with the Brazilian games will likely change discussions about the venues for other Olympics. Perhaps more importantly, within Brazil, it will emphasize the point that many Brazilian critics of the games have long made: that the interests of Brazilian citizens have to come first in government decisions, and that basic needs -education, health and sanitation- should be prioritized over mega-projects.
Addendum: Immediately after posting this piece, I read that 150 health experts had written an open letter calling for the Games to be postponed because of Zika. You can read more about their arguments at USA today. What is most interesting in the piece is the argument that the World Health Organization (WHO) has a conflict of interest regarding the Games, given its partnership with the International Olympics Committee.
Smallpox has killed countless people over the last 12,000 years. It is difficult now to understand the terror that smallpox evoked in a pre-vaccination era. When smallpox was introduced into new populations the death rates sometimes could even exceed 90%, as was the case with the Mandans in the 1837 Great Plains Epidemic. The virus was finally wiped out in the wild through a massive vaccination program in the 1970s. The last infection took place in 1977. Now what should be done with the remaining stocks of the virus in Russia and the United States? I recommend a video by Errol Morris on the New York Times website “The Demon in the Freezer,” which examines this issue in detail. The interview with the Russian bioweapons scientist is particularly chilling. What I liked about the video was that it showcased voices from both sides of the debate.
In few countries is the current political, economic and social situation worse than in Venezuela. This is especially dispiriting given that the country faces an outbreak of the Zika virus at the same time that medicines and basic supplies are in short supply. The Institute for Tropical Medicine has been broken into 11 times in 2 months. The offices were cleaned out so completely that the institute was left without any microscopes or key equipment. The situation in Venezuela’s hospitals is catastrophic. The situation has grown so bad that international organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, are now trying to draw the world’s attention to the breakdown in the nation’s public health system. Given that the nation is failing to adequately prevent and treat other mosquito-born illnesses -such as dengue- Venezuela may be on the edge of repeating the disaster that has passed over Brazil. What is frustrating is that this disaster would be needless, because basic public health measures -eliminating mosquito breeding grounds, spraying, screens on windows, mosquito nets, and insect repellent- could do much to limit the damage. Venezuela also faces severe shortages in such common items, including those necessary for family planning, such as condoms. Couples will need these to delay pregnancies until after the epidemic has peaked. Health officials know what to do. Given the countless billions that the country has given away over the last decade, or which cannot be accounted for, it would be a tragedy if there was not a massive effort to stop Zika on the grounds that the country lacked funds. Still, there are grave doubts about even the validity of the health data that the Venezuelan government is sharing. One health group is providing information that suggests that 150 times more people have been infected by Zika in Venezuela than the government has stated.
It’s not true that the age of discovery is over, and everything worth knowing has already been found. We live in an age of revelations, such as the resting site of one of the ships from the lost Franklin expedition, an immense canyon in Greenland, and an unknown tapir in the Amazon. How can an mammal that travels in groups and weighs 200 pounds have remained undiscovered for so long? What is remarkable is the pace of the discoveries. A new species of wolf has just been revealed in the Himalaya. Three new species of lemurs were discovered by researchers at the University of Kentucky. Multiple new species were just discovered in the ocean off of Atlantic Canada. Still, all of these discoveries are less surprising than the recent announcement that a coral reef exists at the mouth of the Amazon. The reef is the size of Delaware. Part of the reason that it hasn’t been studied before was that nobody thought that such a reef could exist in the fresh water and heavy sediments that pour into the ocean from the river. If we can miss an ecosystem 600 miles long (965 kilometers) long, what else is out there that we’re missing?
Many years ago, I visited Fort McMurray to tour the Canadian Oil Sands. The community is in northern Alberta, perhaps a five and a half hour drive from Edmonton. A few days ago a horrific wildfire began, which has been made worse by the fact that Tuesday this week the temperature was nearly double what is normal at this time of year. The sheer scale of the blaze is hard to comprehend without viewing the videos. This slideshow by NBC gives some sense of the size of what is happening. Citizens have been videotaping their dramatic experiences escaping from the town. Many people have been traumatized trying to flee on the one main highway that connects Fort McMurray to the rest of Alberta. I have read a figure that perhaps 1,600 structures have gone up in flames, but I think that it will be a long time before anyone can know the actual figure. It is heart-breaking to hear people lamenting the loss of their homes as they drive out through a highway with a wall of flames on one side. …
![By CDC/ Cynthia Goldsmith (http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/details.asp?pid=20541) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://introglobal.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Zika_EM_CDC_20541.png)
!["This photo is of a pair of Thylacines, a male and female, received from Dr. Goding in 1902." By Baker; E.J. Keller. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://introglobal.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Thylacinus.jpg)
