Nature Destruction and Coronavirus
Every year Natural disasters kill around millions of people and affect close to 160 million people worldwide. These disasters include tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, hurricanes, floods, wildfire, heatwaves, and droughts. They have an immediate effect on human lives and result on destruction of the Physical, Biological and social environment of the affected people having a long term impact on their health, well being and survival. Any such hazards that we are concerned about on an annual basis, we need to twice as concerned about them.
The natural world is striking back at our exploitation of the earth and wildlife by driving animals to extinction. Of these threats, at present, is Coronavirus which threatens the health and well being of millions of people around as it spreads uncontrollably. There is destruction in almost every habitat in the developing world and in developed world, too. Illegal trade and trafficking in many endangered animal species for high profit could be the cause of Coronavirus.
The small ant-eating creature called Pangolin could be responsible for the jump in Coronavirus from animals to Humans. Bats are known carriers of many viruses ( which are picked up by Pangolin) and eaten by humans in China. They have been found in food markets of Wuhan in China from where the Coronavirus first made crossover from Animal to Humans. It is hard to draw comparisons with the Corona Pandemic even though it is widely accepted by scientists that Corona is not a man-made virus, but jump species, possibly from Bats to Humans.
It is true that Covid-19 was an unexpected pathogen that emerged from nature, but the global pandemic, it led was anything but unexpected. It is lack of preparedness for what was expected that turned the arrival of Covid-19 from a serious problem to unmitigated disaster. there is nothing natural or inevitable about that.
The big hope is that the virus cannot survive in high temperatures, so bring on a hot summer everywhere and with Global warming we can expect that.
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The natural world is striking back at our exploitation of the earth and wildlife by driving animals to extinction. Of these threats, at present, is Coronavirus which threatens the health and well being of millions of people around as it spreads uncontrollably. There is destruction in almost every habitat in the developing world and in developed world, too. Illegal trade and trafficking in many endangered animal species for high profit could be the cause of Coronavirus.
The small ant-eating creature called Pangolin could be responsible for the jump in Coronavirus from animals to Humans. Bats are known carriers of many viruses ( which are picked up by Pangolin) and eaten by humans in China. They have been found in food markets of Wuhan in China from where the Coronavirus first made crossover from Animal to Humans. It is hard to draw comparisons with the Corona Pandemic even though it is widely accepted by scientists that Corona is not a man-made virus, but jump species, possibly from Bats to Humans.
It is true that Covid-19 was an unexpected pathogen that emerged from nature, but the global pandemic, it led was anything but unexpected. It is lack of preparedness for what was expected that turned the arrival of Covid-19 from a serious problem to unmitigated disaster. there is nothing natural or inevitable about that.
The big hope is that the virus cannot survive in high temperatures, so bring on a hot summer everywhere and with Global warming we can expect that.
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