Covid 19; Disease Spread and care for the Earth

It is yet another Earth day commemoration. But this time for a lot of communities around the world, the events are being marked sombrely.  Nearly all of earth's human citizens, over 7 billion of us are hunkered in waiting for the worst of this deadly invisible virus to pass.

Lives have been lost, the global economy decimated as the disease now officially a pandemic continues to take no prisoners. At a time such as this, once the crisis is over we need to put aside our old ways of doing things. It has brought us immense benefits but also great harm. Our airs are polluted, watershed poisoned, some of the natural resources depleted to extinction. Unsustainable politico-economic system and population explosion being the major culprits. None is advocating communism but certainly, unregulated capitalism is equally as bad.

Some studies have shown that deforestation pushes the spread of vectors. While epidemiologists are still working their way to understanding the novel virus; perennial hosts such as bats and pangolins of other wild viruses are suspected of being vectors that transferred this virus to humans. Pangolins are the most trafficked animal in the world; most taken from the wild in West Africa and used in places like  China and South East Asia for medicine and food.

Such unhelpful and antiquated practice of consuming wild animals must be discouraged, and awareness created on the dangers of eating into wildlife habitats. The gamut of climate crises is a long one bordering on diverse aspects and complex situations. The interplay between humans and the abiotic environment is a critical area of climate research. There have been reports of sick Covid 19 patients been made worse due to incapacitated lungs as a fallout of air pollution and underlying diseases. The issue of air pollution is part of the climate change agenda- an agenda of better air indices by adopting renewables and decarbonizing our communities, states, and metropolis. 

Napoleon once said to never let a crisis go to waste. As we hope for the end of this pandemic, the next one lurks around the corner; within the forests, the thawing permafrost, the illegal trade in exotic animals. 

We must act more responsibly to end practices that serve no purpose. 

Happy Earth's day and change is possible.