Healthy Indoors Magazine
Issue link: https://hi.healthyindoors.com/i/1322695
4 | December 2020 Bob Krell Founder & Publisher Publisher's Rant T he waning days of 2020 are a stark reminder of the effect this year has had on all of us. In what is traditionally a festive time of celebrations, we are mostly confined to quarters, avoiding many of our normal hol- iday activities under a pale of gloom, as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In this country, we just witnessed a tumultuous election season, fraught with a flagrant denial of election results by an incumbent who seems more concerned about himself than the people he was elected to serve. More than 310,000 of those very people have now died as a re- sult of the virus that the outgoing admin- istration chose to downplay, rather than muster all our resources to fight. History will not be kind to those who failed to act appropriately in the face of this health and humanitarian catastrophe. And there's the climate crisis, which like this pandemic, has been politically weap- onized. Denying overwhelming science in favor of flawed, biased opinions is not the way to successfully combat an existential threat like man-induced global warming or a worldwide outbreak of a deadly vi- rus. We need to forego political tribalism and utilize the power of everyone working together to collectively defeat the envi- ronmentally linked menaces we've unwit- tingly created. Yes Virginia, the COVID-19 pandemic is linked to climate change. And time is not on our side. We collectively have amazing capabil- ities—as evidenced by the development of new vaccine technology to immunize against the SARS CoV-2 virus in less than a year. These vaccines have been a global effort. We appear to have created the necessary tools to reverse this growing pandemic, but it will be incumbent upon the wealthy nations to steward distribu- tion to everyone around the world, not just hoard these new life-saving resources for the financially privileged few. Like cli- mate change, COVID-19 is a global threat to all mankind. We need to recognize that and treat it as such. 2020 will indeed be remembered as an awful year by most of us. But it should also serve as a powerful wake-up call to work together to improve the future—for everyone, lest we go the way of the di- nosaurs. Here's to hoping we learn from this mess and make substantive, positive change going forward in 2021 and beyond. On behalf of myself and the entire Healthy Indoors magazine/IAQNET, LLC team, we wish you all a safe and happier holiday season and new year! Closing the Book on 2020 Bob Krell Bob Krell is president of IAQ Technologies, Inc., a Syracuse, NY-based indoor environmental firm he founded in 1990, offering consulting, mitigation and training services to a variety of clients throughout the country and abroad. He co-founded IAQNET, LLC in 2013, and serves as publisher of its Healthy Indoors Magazine. Bob is the Producer/Director for the online video series, The Healthy Indoors Show, along with numerous other industry video projects and online events, and is Training Director for live distance learning offerings through IAQschool.online. Contact him at: bob@healthyindoors.com