Humans vs. ecology: reflections on the pandemic

Human’s health lies on soundness of the ecological environment 

Right from the beginning of 2020, the world has been devastatingly hit with a stun bomb, COVID-19. Compiling the worldwide confirmed cases, the number has even topped several millions, and several hundred thousands of people around the world have unfortunately died of the disease. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that the global economy would shrink by 3% this year amid the global coronavirus pandemic. 

Such an astounding impact is simply unprecedented. Hence, a slew of stimulus measures is being provided by many countries in the hope of alleviating the damage brought by the epidemic. Nevertheless, while these countries are in a hurry to rescue their economies, have they ever thought of the impact of COVID-19 on Earth from an ecological angle? 

A significant COVID-19 apocalypse - an appropriate social distance is also required between human and organism   
It is undeniable that the rapid increase of the global population has made human’s living environment getting closer and closer to wild animals. Like the COVID-19 erupted this time, its origin is still a mystery. But many related reports have all pointed to humans’ eating and illegal sale of wild animals as the origin. While the boundary between human and organism is no longer clear, zoonosis (an infectious disease naturally spread between animal and human) is therefore more rampant. 

In fact, over the past several decades, for those new infectious disease types often popping up on the headlines of media, almost 70% of their pathogens, including Ebola, avian flu, MERS, SARS, etc., came from animals. They posed a great threat to human’s health and economies. The eruption of COVID-19 this time has reminded us again that we must respect animal’s living environment and keep an appropriate social distance. 

Human’s health lies on soundness of the ecological environment 
There is another apocalypse brought from the new coronaviruses this time, i.e. the environmental and natural conservation policy per se is one of the ways to prevent new types of infectious diseases. 

In the past several months, many scientific experts have all indicated that human’s destruction of the ecological system could substantially increase disease pandemics. It is especially so with the threat of increased climate change, which is resulting in rapid loss of biodiversity. When the overall ecological supply chain and environment are losing their balance, humans have become more incapable of controlling the diseases caused by animals. 

Aptly, the epidemic has yielded a space for nature to take a break. Looking around the world, air quality, hydrology, beaches, and land pollution have been improved. Natural sounds and wild animals which were scared away by humans have come back in big cities and their surroundings. Apparently, with the reduction of economic and social activities, biodiversity has reemerged. Other than the control of zoonosis, humans have also regained precious treasures of fresh air, clean water, and an ecological wealth. 

To sum up, human’s health lies on soundness of the ecological environment. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) originally scheduled to be held in October this year was planned to set out new targets for international biodiversity. It has currently been postponed because of the epidemic. However, the warning of “ecological protection” released due to COVID-19 has highly alerted each country. It is anticipated that the world can learn a lesson from this disease disaster, and, in the future, strong and robust targets and policies will be mapped out to make 2020 a critical year for natural environment and ecology.