I don’t recall when or how I established this entire thought. I likewise can attest to the fact that I have heard parts of it in separate forms. As far as I know, no one else has in public, related it to how my mind has. To be explicit, this is merely a thought and is not to be regarded as a truth.

With the present Chinese Outbreak of a never seen coronavirus who, at the moment of this writing has killed 26 people and infected some 800, this peculiar notion of mine comes back to mind. I shared my thoughts with a colleague and is receptive of the concept and realized an argument for it. After our discussion, my phone dings, and there is a new message notification. Another colleague, whom I’ve never shared this view with, sends me an article.

They entitled the piece “Scientists found ancient never-before-seen viruses locked in a glacier.” I looked at some quick research on the article and wasn’t able to identify an authority I am comfortable with and can say is credible. Regardless, the timing of its presence, trustworthy or not, causes me wonder if the cosmos is prompting me to distribute it to the masses.

So what is this line of reasoning? Part of it falls in order with the article. We realize that viruses have been around a great while and they can affect animals as it does with humans. We have farther learned that viruses are established in frozen glaciers. When the ice thaws, they could free these viruses. 

Jean-Michel Claverie is cited as saying “Permafrost is a very good preserver of microbes and viruses, because it is cold, there is no oxygen, and it is dark,” in a BBC article entitled “There are diseases hidden in ice, and they are waking up.” As this ice melts, the potential for a virus to infect animals and individuals becomes legitimate.

The article also points out two studies that support this. The first was by Boris Revich and Marina Podolnaya in 2011 where they noted “As a consequence of permafrost melting, the vectors of deadly infections of the 18th and 19th Centuries may come back,” couple that with the 2005 study done by NASA in which they were successful in reviving bacteria that had been suspended for 32,000 years. In fact, Jean-Michel Claverie was a part of a study in 2014 where they revived viruses trapped in permafrost for 30,000 years.

So we recognize that ancient ice holds viruses, and we see they can survive and have the power to provoke an outbreak. This is nothing unique, and this premise has been the focal point of several pieces of media, many meant for entertainment. The question is, how does this affect us?

In comes the argument on climate change. It’s suggested that our world is heating, some claim that’s not accurate. For the purpose of my idea, we will have to acknowledge that it is true. As climate change progresses, and the ice disappears, the viruses reemerge from their stupor and wipe out mankind. Still, this is nothing ground breaking.

When I thought about climate change, and the discussion about being fueled by human involvement, my mind drifted towards parasites. We have a symbiotic relationship with our earth. When we take care of it, it takes care of us. When we don’t, it will try to oust us. Here lies my idea.

What if, for argument’s sake, our negative relationship with our earth has led to the temperature to climb around the world? That temperature rising is a lot like how individuals get a fever when there is an infection by a virus. So does the Earth look at us like a virus because of the ruin we have produced? Is climate change a fever the Earth has obtained because of us?

Connecting these ideas is when we see my thinking collide. Because we are the virus and the Earth now picks up a “fever” the ice thaws. That melting ice release a virus that kills off the disease that led to the “fever” which is us. So would that make the virus in the ice, the earths antibodies purging its system of us?

What if the Earth encapsulated a doomsday virus within the ice caps as a point of no return? In the ice, at a very precise point there is this devastating disease and it require a massive amount of ice to thaw. This precise position is the limit in the ice that provokes a cleansing to battle the infection.

We realize that as a human, if a fever goes past 104 degrees Fahrenheit, that its becoming dangerous and we require stronger interventions. So this spot where this epic virus lives, would be comparable to that 104 degrees in humans. It’s the moment when the earth needs stronger interventions to bring it back to a healthy state.

How paradoxical, humans, who see ourselves as sentient beings and is effected by our own illnesses, are a virus to the earth. As we continue to wreak mayhem on the earths body systems, its fever develops (climate change).

As this supposed fever reaches a particular intensity (104 degrees Fahrenheit), to look after itself, the earth bears a stronger antibody tucked away at a specific stage in the ice. Once the ice melts to that stage, this antibody (doomsday virus for humans) is activated and removes earths infection.

There, there it is, the string of thoughts my mind brought together. Its part science fiction, nonfiction and conspiracy theory, that’s what makes it so entertaining, and so freighting. I’m sure plenty of people can identify some validity in it, as well some people can pull it apart. Regardless, it’s a curious speculation.

Are we making to be our own demise? Will we have a demise? Is climate change a normalization to the last ice age? These are all questions we can grapple with.