Coronavirus infection kills thousands of people every day. People are dying alone in hospitals in developed countries. The pile of corpses is freezing in the freezer. We are also seeing pictures of mass graves in the media. Many do not have the presence of relatives on the last journey. The last tears of relatives do not fall in their graves. The coronavirus has put human civilization in the face of a brutal reality today. In this article, we’ll talk about the connection between climate change and coronavirus.
Since the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, China, last December, about 17,474,691 people have been infected worldwide, and more than 676,700 people have died. In the United States, 4,634,985 people have been infected, and 155,285 have died.
Due to the lockdown, 20 percent of the world’s people are under house arrest today. Billions of people are becoming unemployed. When will people be able to return to normal life, the wheel of the economy when will active again it is still unknown.
Consequences of environmental destruction
Is human suffering the consequences of the destruction of their environment? Some information may teach you to think about the answer to this question.
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)’s data, on average, an infectious disease spreads to humans every four months. Seventy-five percent of these infectious diseases come from animals.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says the new coronavirus came from bats. A team of researchers from the University of Hong Kong and the University of Sydney said, from bats to become pangolins came into the human body. It is important to know that the most trafficked animal in the world is the pangolin. However, western countries are watching the conspiracy to hide China’s information. They suspect the virus could spread from Chinese laboratories, not nature.
Whatever it is, the reality is that the world’s tropical or evergreen deforestation rate is 7.5 percent. This information is provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). According to Scientific America, 160 acres of forest are destroyed every day in the world. With it, 135 species of plants, animals, and insects become extinct every day. Wildlife is coming into contact with humans due to the destruction of the ecosystem.
However, a balanced ecosystem can protect us from diseases. Because, if there is rich forest or biodiversity, diseases and germs cannot spread quickly. Therefore, wildlife trafficking and habitat destruction must stop now to survive any future epidemics.
Climate change will give rise to many crises like Corona.
As the earth’s temperature rises, the polar ice caps are melting, exposing thousands of years of dormant bacteria and viruses from the Permafrost Layer beneath it. Which can infect people, create new epidemics?
In August 2016, a 12-year-old boy died of anthrax in the Yamal Peninsula in the Siberian tundra region, and at least 20 people were hospitalized. At the same time, about two thousand reindeer were infected in that area.
The story behind it is that a Reindeer died of anthrax here about 75 years ago, which was buried. When the ice melts in the heatwave of 2016, the soil layer comes out and the anthrax germs are exposed. Science says that Anthrax germs can survive underground for many decades.
Scientists discovered RNA fragments in the mass graves of people who died of the Spanish flu virus in 1918 in the Tundra region of Alaska in 2011. Their idea is that the Spanish flu, smallpox, or plague could return if the permafrost layer of the soil is exposed to melting ice.
In 2005, NASA scientists discovered two types of bacteria from the ice sheet of Alaska, those were 32,000 years old. Two years later, 70 million-year-old bacteria were discovered in the Beacon and Mullin Valley glaciers in Antarctica.
In 2014, scientists discovered two viruses from the Siberian permafrost layer. They say that these viruses become contagious as soon as they are released. Rising temperatures are associated with an increase in the incidence of diseases such as dengue or malaria.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), global temperatures have risen by 1.1 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial period (1850-1900).2015 to 2019 – these five years were the warmest in the world.
According to a United Nations report last year, Antarctica’s ice melt rate has increased six-fold between 1979 and 2017 due to rising temperatures. And, from 2015 to 2019 — the rate of glacier melting in these five years is the highest in history. That is, the way is being opened for the return of ancient viruses and bacteria.
Not only that but melting ice also means rising sea level. Between 1997 and 2007, the global Sea level rise rate is 4 millimeters per year. Between 1997 and 2006, the rate of global sea-level rise was 3.04 mm per year, which is increasing by 4 mm per year during the period 2007-2016.
If this growth rate continues, many islands and coastal areas of the world will be submerged in the next 50 to 60 years. Large areas and agricultural lands can be affected by salinity. It is a threat to food security and public health. Billions of people will lose their jobs due to salinity.
If carbon emissions are not reduced, by the end of this century, in the next 80 years, global temperatures will rise by 2.9 degrees Celsius to 3.4 degrees Celsius, compared to the pre-industrial era. As the temperature rises, the number and severity of natural disasters including storms, floods, droughts, heatwaves, and winters will increase.
The corona crisis is showing the way to the new world
Rivers have also been temporarily freed from toxic waste due to the closure of mills due to people staying indoors to survive the coronavirus.
Nitrogen oxide (NO₂) causes respiratory and heart disease in humans, which is caused by the use of fossil fuels. In the two weeks since the announcement of the lockdown in the UK, the amount of nitrogen oxides in the air has dropped by 60 percent compared to the previous year, BBC News reports.
Last month, Nitrogen Oxide levels in the northeastern United States dropped 30 percent from a year earlier. In China, January and February were down 40 percent from a year earlier.
There are more such examples in the world. Now the question is, is it possible to achieve it in normal time?
The Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2015 by all countries to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius by 2100 compared to the pre-industrial era. However, efforts will be made not to allow it to rise above 1.5 degrees Celsius. According to a special report by the IPCC in 2018, if the current situation continues, by 2030, global temperatures will rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era. To keep global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, carbon emissions will have to be reduced by 45 percent by 2030 compared to 2010, and by 2050 it will have to go to zero or equilibrium. Suitable technology is in the hands of people. All that is needed is political will.
However, developed countries are reluctant to reduce carbon emissions for fear of so-called economic losses. On the other hand, scientists say that if the world is in crisis, this economy will collapse like a house of cards, which is being revealed in the Corona crisis. Scientists have come a long way in discovering a vaccine to prevent coronavirus.
Then the environment will be polluted like before? Will the reality of climate change be ignored on the pretext of so-called financial gain?
Last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, there is no chance of forgetting that the biggest crisis in the world today is climate change. Involved with this is the question of the existence of the earth and human civilization. If we do not take the necessary steps now, there will be no way back from the catastrophe.
Aaron Bernstein, director of Harvard University’s Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment said in an interview that it was “a dangerous illusion” to view health in isolation from environmental policy.
What is the relationship between infectious diseases with climate change?
No direct connection. That is to say, coronavirus infection has spread to climate change, it cannot be said, but climate change can be blamed for the widespread impact that COVID has had on humans. For example, the impact of air pollution on human health is small, but in some cases, it has taken a terrible turn. This is how the connection between climate change and Coronavirus alive.
The World Health Organization says infectious diseases such as SARS, HIV, AIDS, and Hantavirus, which could lead to demographic, environmental, social, technological, and other changes, are on the rise. According to WHO, the prevalence of infectious diseases is increasing as a result of climate change.
By the World Health Organization,
“Long before the discovery of infectious agents in the nineteenth century, people knew the relationship between climate and infectious diseases. Roman nobles used to go to the mountains in summer to escape malaria. People in South Asia knew that well-cooked food in hot weather could prevent diarrhea.”
Add to favorites
Leave a Reply