Coronaviruses are zoonotic diseases, meaning they jump from animals to humans. Mishandling of wildlife is a prime suspect in how a mutated form of coronavirus (COVID-19) infected humans at a wet market in Wuhan, China.
In tightly packed markets, meat, poultry, and seafood are sold under insanitary conditions for human consumption, in a transaction that’s best described as animal cruelty.
At these markets suffer the endearing and endangered pangolins. This prehistoric “scaly anteater” that’s been around for 80 million years is now one of the world’s most trafficked mammals, accounting for as much as 20 percent of the illegal wildlife trade with their scales coveted for Chinese medicine.
You will rarely find pangolins in captivity as they refuse to eat or drink once removed from their habitats and poachers have exhausted them to be now on the verge of extinction.
The COVID-19 crisis comes as no surprise to climate scientists and epidemiologists who’ve predicted this magnitude of a pandemic. As a consequence of increased air travel, the spread of pathogens is greatly facilitated.
The rest of the world is only a flight away, we’re all connected and we must meet the future with a sense of shared responsibility.
Only a month away from Earth Day’s 50th anniversary, with 337,553 cases and 14,654 deaths in 192 countries as of March 22nd (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/), COVID-19 is currently on the rise and spreading throughout the Western world in a process that highlights how vulnerably interconnected our economic systems and social structures are.
What happens in China doesn’t stay in China. You cannot build a wall to keep germs out. A little piece of nucleic acid has disrupted “business as usual.”
Since the middle of the last century, we’ve seen a threefold increase in the human population with significant economic output and industrial progress. This is collectively referred to as the great acceleration.
The peak oil pollution party is over for now. The coronavirus pandemic has forced us to decelerate, to shelter-in-place, with the immediate measurable clearing of the skies and waterways.
Humans have inhabited almost every corner of the world and, with urbanization, disrupted healthy ecosystems. Furthermore, global warming is now forcing animals to migrate away from their natural habitats and this has resulted in increased human contact to stressed-out wildlife that shed viruses and bacteria that cross-species boundaries.
The exploitation and mishandling of animals, and close proximity with captive and distressed wildlife that’s been displaced, increases the chances of viruses jumping across species.
If you’ve ever had a cold sore you know that stress is a trigger for virus outbreaks and this isn’t a new phenomenon. Turns out, herpes jumped from chimpanzees to ancestors of modern humans about 1.6 million years ago.
An area cut down to grow palm oil trees in West Africa was the source of the deadly Ebola epidemic. There is a common thread in the roots of recent outbreaks (Swine flu, avian flu, SARS, MERS).
How we treat the natural world is always best reflected in its response. The loss of biodiversity, environmental degradation and disruption of healthy ecosystems threatens our own health and economic systems.
Animals need fresh air and livable spaces, healthy, natural diets — most preferably in their natural habitats. We must respect, protect and conserve wildlife habitats or be prepared to risk the evolution of novel pathogens. The wet markets in China are a perfect petri dish for the emergence of novel infectious diseases.
Social distancing is changing the way we think about travel and our relationships to one another. I hope we will also use this inward bound time to re-think the way we relate to the rest of the natural world.
Everything is connected, conservation and preservation are now a public health issue.
We must do what we can to preserve habitats and restore balance in the natural world.
We must protect Intact Forest Landscapes (https://www.intactforests.org).
Preserving forests helps mitigate climate change and protects biodiversity, which helps maintain stable, healthy ecosystems and prevents the spread of pathogens.
We must stop invading and upsetting wildlife habitats. We must declare wildlife sanctuaries and protect the rainforest.
When we are ready to reset our economy post-COVID19, we can insist on climate-resilient decisions through investments in low-carbon technologies. We must stop concentrated animal feeding operations, and clean up our supply chains to ensure that we are not disrupting habitats and destroying ecosystems.
We must reduce non-essential air travel, with less flights we reduce carbon emissions and prevent the spread of pathogens. In this crisis we’ve learned to replace in-person meetings with video-conferences while working from home.
When the COVID19 threat passes, let’s not return to “business as usual.” Let’s insist on a more sustainable, resilient and reliable social and economic structure for our children. It’ll take time and yes, sacrifices must be made, but we must re-think our ways if we are to survive the future.
April 22nd marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, which will be observed with a Digital Earth Day, a global digital mobilization to address the most urgent threats to people and the planet. The global conversation will be unified and tracked by the shared hashtags #EarthDay2020 and #EARTHRISE @earthdaynetwork.
Dr. Hildur Palsdottir is communications and social media director on the Board of ReWild Long Island
