The growing threat of a pandemic was making whispers sometime in late January and in the space of a few short weeks, we were in its throes. As a trained molecular biologist with a career in environmental management, the link between ecological degradation and novel diseases is plain to me. Zoonotic diseases are responsible for 60% of newly emerging diseases. This has always been the case, even with less ‘novel’ diseases like the plague and malaria. Destruction of ecosystems, wildlife trafficking, and airline travel make the perfect concoction in which new infectious agents are born and rapidly spread.
We base all economics on an ecosystem. Economists even have a term for this — ‘ecosystem services’, which is the benefit we derive from basing our activities on a resilient natural system. These include the value of bees in pollinating our crops, mangroves that protect our shorelines from erosion and endless such examples.
We have seen time and again when ecosystems degrade or apex predators are hunted out, disease has spread. The liminal zones of destruction where humans interact closely with environmental degradation are the birth-spots of disease. Where land is destroyed to open up a mine, where villages on the fringes of forests rely on bushmeat, where animals are caught for exotic pet trade — all of these create interactions between species that are unnatural.
Shrinking habitats
We now know AIDS crossed over from chimpanzees to humans, back in the 1920s, when bushmeat hunters butchered them. We know that when the Nipah virus broke out in piggeries in Malaysia in 1998, these were located close to orchards which allowed unique interactions between bats and pigs. Shrinking forests mean bats are turning nomadic in search of food, often flying hundreds of kilometres away from their natural habitat.
We know SARS originated in bats and spread to humans through animals held in Chinese markets, primarily the masked palm civet. More than 10,000 of these animals were then culled in the Guangdong Province, and in 2006, it was confirmed through genetic sequencing that the virus did indeed make the jump from civet to man. Now, with SARS-CoV-2, which is the causative agent of the current pandemic, we know that similar xenographic barriers have been breached.
The human race has a level of hubris disproportionate to our very short memories. In 2008, when global markets crashed, carbon emissions fell to their lowest levels in modern history. At that point, there was hope that investment would begin more robustly in a low-carbon economy. It wasn’t the case and business went back to normal and every year since then has gotten warmer, resulting in more environmental catastrophes.
We jump to action when threat is indiscriminate, sudden and universal as in the case of COVID-19 but when threats are discriminatory and slow to creep up on us, like climate change, we get lulled into a stupor. This cognitive dissonance is special to us — to any other animal, a threat is a threat, and it reacts the same way whether it is immediate or long-term.
According to the WHO, around 91% of the world’s population live in places where air pollution levels exceed acceptable limits. This results in an estimated 4.2 million premature deaths annually, according to 2015 statistics. The COVID-19 pandemic so far has claimed over 3,67,116 lives (at the time of writing). The lockdown in Italy has seen a reduction in nitrous dioxide emissions, which has been confirmed by recent data from the European Space Agency (ESA). An earlier report from NASA and the ESA, showed a similar phenomenon over China when manufacturing was curbed for a period between January 1, 2020 and February 25, 2020. There is indication from Stanford research that suggests that this drop in air pollution levels has already saved the lives of 4,000 kids under 5 and 73,000 adults over 70 in China.
Clean Venice
Meanwhile in the canals of Venice, which was severely affected by floods just last year, the water is running clear due to the lack of boat traffic. In Southern California, air quality levels have dramatically improved as traffic has dropped. Similar lockdowns in India have resulted in AQI (Air Quality Index) readings that are finally in the healthy zone in many of our major cities. The awe at being able to see the Himalayan range from Jalandhar and Mt. Kanchenjunga from Siliguri took over social media, just a few short weeks ago. As COVID-19 spreads and more and more cities go into lockdown, and tourism is stalled, this pandemic is giving us a glimpse into what it looks like when Nature reclaims the spaces vehemently denied to her.
As we throw every tool in the box at the problem of containing this virus, it would serve our intelligence well to take stock and not recreate similar patterns. This is uncharted waters for all of us; but we have been forced to slow down, and it is the perfect time to take stock.
The nature of this virus demands that we stay apart, when we most want to huddle together. It demands that we isolate ourselves physically, but we should remember that it is not a reason to isolate ourselves emotionally.
It is time we realise that our behaviour makes or breaks a system and to hold up a mirror to expose our own shortcomings. It is time to extend help to the most vulnerable and not freeze in a bubble of ignorance, fear, and distrust. It is time to understand what we must let go of — consumerism, exploitation, oppression, privilege, among other things. We must make just demands of our leadership, and have the courage to reimagine how we function.
Every catastrophe is an opportunity to build a stage where the best of humanity has the spotlight to shine. In this case, my sincere hope for the future is building a world in which we burn down the barriers of prejudice, inequality, greed, and hatred and from those ashes, we welcome a new epoch where there is a natural space for species that do not share our hubris.
The Chennai-based environmental consultant, photographer, diver and writer finds time for random concerts and uses every opportunity to run away to the nearest ocean.
