My favorite chapter so far has been Thirteen Gorillas. This is because the topic of Ebola has interested me and reading about not only the spread of the disease, but its impact is fascinating. Last summer, the TV show Hot Zone appeared on National Geographic, which prompted my interest in infectious diseases. Unlike the other diseases mentioned, I’ve only experienced the Ebola scar when it came to Atlanta at the CDC. This chapter introduced multiple perspectives that either came from the well-renowned scientists or tribe leaders. Similar to the chapters after Thirteen Gorillas, Quammen touches on cultural approaches and factors countries faces that contribute to the fatality rate. This chapter was a favorite because I knew some of the information stated I already knew the book which made it more relatable.
The topic that has affected me the most is the idea that most of our modern disease epidemics are occurring as a result of human encroachment on the natural ecological boundaries of the animal kingdom. An example of the infectious disease shows most epidemics AIDS, Ebola, West Nile SARS, and hundreds more that have occurred over the last several decades were released into the world based on ecological disturbance. They are a result of things people due to nature. This has the most significant impact on me because, in this modern age, the world is slowly deteriorating. We are in an age of deforesting the Amazon, warming the Arctic, and plausible freshwater. As humans regularly interact with the ecosystem, we are destroying the physical boundary that is essential for human health and stopping diseases. In the book Spillover it states “Works with an appreciation of modern developments in biology are finding that infectious diseases can be thought of with profit along ecological lines as a struggle for existence between man and micro-organism.(Quammen, pg. 235)” That’s why experts say it’s critical to understand underlying causes. “Any emerging disease in the last 30 or 40 years has come about as a result of encroachment into wildlands and changes in demography,” says Peter Daszak, a disease ecologist and the president of EcoHealth. (Robbins)
The topic doesn’t change the way I think or how I may act in the future. I believe that this topic brings perspective, as seen in Spillover. I would have never thought that human interactions with the ecosystem could be the push viruses need to attack foreign subjects. To me, it does not change how I may act in the future because I am not directly the one disturbing the forest. But I will be wearer when traveling outside my standard activity space. I do see the world differently. I already knew that with the warming weather and the melting of the permafrost will bring more diseases that have been hidden to the world, what was fascinating is that us destroying the environment is causing more diseases to appear. “Burnet was right on big ideas, including that one: environmental disruption by humans as a releaser of epidemics. (Quammen pg. 237)”
Quammen, David. Spillover. The Bodley Head Ltd., 2012.
Robbins, Jim. “The Ecology of Disease.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 July 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-ecology-of-disease.html.