It's nature fighting back!

Because of man's greed for profit, ranchers rendered dead animals to feed the grass-eating sheep. The extra protein made them grow faster and fatter. Thus, the virus of the disease was transferred to them. The same thing happened to cattle. In feed lots where cattle from the ranches were fattened, they were fed protein from corn, soybeans -- mixed with rendered dead animals. Rendering is a process by which animals are boiled in huge vats until the fat melts and the tissues break down. The resulting brew is then dried and mixed with animal feed. The virus punches holes in the brains of the animals so that they stagger about crazy until they fall and die, hence the term "mad cow" disease.

Ebola used to be confined to monkeys. Primitive African tribes, who hunted wild animals for food, including monkeys, got the disease from them. Ebola is a horrible disease. The victim bleeds and rots from inside -- literally. Blood oozes out of every orifice in the body. This oozing is very contagious. Laboratories in the United States that used monkeys for their experiments had to kill all the monkeys in their compounds.

Sars is believed to have crossed from infected civet cats (and ducks) in China. The Chinese eat a variety of exotic animals in the belief that such food increase sexual potency and cure illnesses. Some Filipinos believe in the same superstitions. Plenty of dogs are eaten in the Cordilleras because the people there believe that dog meat gives warmth and so wards off the cold of the mountain air. Animal welfare officials fear that exotic animals being sold in the Arranque market in downtown Manila and elsewhere can spread the Sars virus there. When man eats plenty of exotic animals, nature fights back. Exotic diseases are nature's vengeance.

In fact, man was not intended by nature to eat meat at all. Man was supposed to be a plant eater. Proof: man's teeth are flat, made for grinding plants, just like those of the herbivoresthe cattle, sheep, horses, elephants, buffalo, antelope, etc. Carnivores have pointed teeth made for biting into and tearing flesh, like those of dogs, cats, lions, hyenas, wolves, tigers, etc. Compare the teeth of apes: The baboon, a meat eater, has pointed teeth; the much bigger gorilla, a plant eater, has flat teeth. Early man was a plant eater. Families gathered fruits, leaves, and roots for food, and they travelled great distances to feed themselves. Then man discovered fire. Now he could cook the meat of animals to make them tender. And it was much easier to hunt animals for the meat, the hides and the bones. Besides, big animals lasted longer for the families. And they didn't have to travel far and wide to gather fruits and plants. Before the discovery of fire, chewing raw meat was difficult.

When man discovered agriculture so he could grow his own plants, he also discovered he could domesticate wild animals. So he didn't have to hunt them anymore. He just allowed them to multiply in his backyard. But man was not made to metabolize meat like the carnivores. He was meant to be a vegetarian. So his system could not tolerate the excess of animal fat and cholesterol that went with the meat. These adhered to his blood vessels and blocked them. Result: heart disease, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, etc.

Man also discovered tobacco and sugar, and from fermented sugar, alcohol. He found it nice to smoke, eat and drink. They gave him a high. But he wasn't made to consume too much of them. Yet gluttony and temptation are the scourge of modern man. It is hard to resist the temptation of eating, drinking, smoking and having fun. Live it up. But the living up shortens life. Nicotine constricts blood vessels and so not enough blood can flow through them. Result: heart attack or stroke and death. Too much alcohol results in cirrhosis of the liver and death. Too much sugar results in diabetes and multi-organ failure and death.

It is ironic, but abundance of everything may be bad for us. We complain of shortages of some things but, maybe, we have too much of other things --alcohol, tobacco, drugs. It is now so easy to get them even if they are bad for us. To satisfy man's insatiable appetite, we mowed down the forests. Nature fought back with landslides. To produce more from our factories, we polluted the land, the air and the seas. Nature fought back with red tides that poisoned people. The global warming caused by air pollution is in the process of melting the ice caps that would raise the level of the seas that could drown smaller islands and seaside communities. Man is now in the process of depleting marine life.

Sirajul Islam is a social sciences researcher and consultant.