This was going to be a press release about the launch of our new 1Gateway version 2.4 and our new website, https://1gateway.com, but in light of the current Covid-19 crisis, it doesn’t feel right. I am writing this from my home in a village just outside Madrid, Spain. Madrid has been hit hard by the virus and is in complete lockdown. The situation seems surreal, like a movie.

We are not allowed to leave the house except to buy food or medicine, and then only a single person per household can go. If we have to drive, we have to be alone in the car. The police are stopping all cars on the major roads, and violators of these rules are getting hefty fines. Hospitals in the region are overfull, and hotels and the main convention center have turned into makeshift hospitals. Streets are empty, and 90% of flights have been suspended.
Carbon emissions must be at an all-time low right now. If this goes on for a while, we might see a positive effect on the greenhouse effect and global warming, something we have been unable to achieve without this virus’s “intervention”.

There is a philosophy that views the earth as a living organism with a heart, lungs, and an immune system. According to that philosophy, natural disasters are expressions of the earth’s immune system, intended to restore balance. One could say that the way humans have treated the planet over the past century has made the earth sick, and that would make us the illness. In that case, the earth’s immune system has come up with a very clever defense, one that makes sure that we interrupt our most noxious activities for a while, and who knows, being locked up at home might make us remember the important things in life: freedom, family, human contact, nature…

Remko