The topic links the disease COVID 19,
man and the natural environment. Why should one link a disease with man and the
environment? Well, all biological agents, as living organisms, that cause and
propagate diseases reside in the environment- the natural environment- as man
does. I have linked up 3 elements as per the topic. This is the clarity of that
link. The disease COVID 19 as a pandemic took man out of the natural
environment through lockdown and other measures, the result, spectacular
result, restorations in the natural environment. Taking out man from the
natural environment, and the resultant restorations, linked man to the
mismanagement of the natural environment. When man was in the natural
environment, so to speak, there was no restoration, because of their
activities, until man was taken out of it and the activities ceased!
THE DISEASE
The World Health Organization the body
responsible for naming new human infectious diseases, officially gave the above-named
disease its name-COVID 19, the full name being coronavirus 2019. The 19 in the
name represents the year 2019, the year the virus causing the disease was first
found.
The name of the virus causing the
disease- COVID 19 is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus
2(SARS-CoV-2). The Coronaviridae Study Group (CSG) of the International
Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses designated the virus as such.
According to https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-0695-z:
“The present outbreak of a
coronavirus-associated acute respiratory disease called coronavirus disease 19
(COVID-19) is the third documented spillover of an animal coronavirus to humans
in only two decades that has resulted in a major epidemic.”
On December
31, 2019 The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, China reported a cluster of pneumonia
cases in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. It turn out to be novel coronavirus or
COVID 19!
SPREAD
Nobody imagined
that from such lowly beginning in Wuhan COVID 19 was going to spread throughout
the world on such frightening a scale. It is like going to war with an enemy
you have little or no intelligence on.
The rate of
transmission of the disease from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in December, 2019
to date has been phenomenal. It caught the world wrong footed. It is almost
shutting down the world in its entirety in absolute terms! It could be going
full circle. However, in some places, at this point in time, it appears the
rate of transmission is slowing down.
But then let
it be known that not everybody is of the opinion that SARS-CoV-19, the virus
causing COVID 19 crossed species from animal to human. There is a school of
thought believing that the virus causing COVID 19 originated in a laboratory in
China, and escaped into the society. President Donald Trump of the USA belongs
to that school of thought. In any case the virus in humans originated in China.
From the
John Hopkins COVID 19 tracker on May 8, 2020 at 11.46 (am) local time on a
global scale, there were 3,845,607 confirmed cases of COVID 19. Out of those
cases 269,564 were dead, and 1,282,930 had recovered.
Through the
link https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/countries-where-coronavirus-has-spread/
we are informed that as at April 26, 2020, 12.56 GMT 210 countries and
territories around the world have caught COVID 19. From a spot in Wuhan in China,
within 5 months (December, 2019 to April, 2020), COVID 19 like a whirlpool, has
encircled the world!
Given the
scale of devastation COVID 19 is leaving in its trail, and the fear it is
infusing into the society, it is not giving itself a good name. It has acquired
the image of a Frankenstein. Come to think of it, horrible as it appears, COVID
19 is giving the world a chance to reform!
There is a
story which happen in Ghana, West Africa. As it is well known the disease
started in Wuhan, China, so for some it was thought of as a Chinese disease.
President Trump of USA publicly expresses that opinion. In that story, two
Chinese boarded a taxi, other people refused to board that same taxi for fear
that by sharing the taxi with the Chinese they would contract COVID 19.
A
WORLD SHAKEN
The United
Nations Development Programme paints a picture of the world due to COVID 19
through the link https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/coronavirus.html
as follows:
“The
pandemic is moving like a wave—one that may yet crash on those least able to
cope.
But COVID-19
is much more than a health crisis. By stressing every one of the countries it
touches, it has the potential to create devastating social, economic and
political crises that will leave deep scars.
We are in
uncharted territory. Many of our communities are now unrecognizable. Dozens of
the world’s greatest cities are deserted as people stay indoors, either by
choice or by government order. Across the world, shops, theatres, restaurants
and bars are closing.
Every day,
people are losing jobs and income, with no way of knowing when normality will
return. Small island nations, heavily dependent on tourism, have empty hotels
and deserted beaches. The International Labour Organization estimates that 195
million jobs could be lost.”
COVID 19 has
shaken the economy of China. The link https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/17/china-economy-beijing-contracted-in-q1-2020-gdp-amid-coronavirus.html
tells us that:
“China reported
Friday that its first quarter GDP contracted by 6.8% in 2020 from a year
ago as the world’s second largest economy took a huge hit from the coronavirus outbreak,
data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China showed.
The
contraction in the first quarter is the first decline since at least 1992, when
official quarterly GDP records started, according to Reuters. China’s
government figures are frequently doubted by analysts.
Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted China’s GDP would shrink by 6.5% in the January to
March quarter, compared to a year ago. The forecasts from 57 analysts
polled ranged from a 28.9% contraction to a 4% expansion. China’s economy grew
6% in the last quarter of 2019.”
I have cited
China in particularly because of the central role it plays in the world
economy.
NATURAL
ENVIRONMENT
But COVID 19
cannot be entirely bad, and it is not entirely bad. COVID 19 is telling us
something critically positive. Something critically positive in the area of the
natural environment for example. So COVID
19 cannot appropriately be described as a complete Frankenstein, in that it has
both good and bad sides. It can appropriately be said to be a dichotomy. The critically positive thing is that COVID
19 has shown that the mismanagement of the natural environment is clearly and
inextricably linked with, and can be attributed to man. I have given a hint in
the opening of this post.
A testimony
through https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/coronavirus-nature-environment-swans-venice-clear-skies-china/
says:
“Swans in
canals, dolphins at empty cruise ports and even wild boar in cobbled streets
prove how fast nature can reclaim the world
It has to be
said, Planet Earth would breathe a long sigh of relief if humans were to
vanish.
And
temporarily, in many places, they have.
Amid the
unprecedented coronavirus global lockdown, scenes worthy of a Disney film have
emerged; from swans gliding through the now-clear canals of Venice to blue
skies over China where the air is usually choked with smog.”
The European
Space Agency has also observed a change in the environmental conditions amid
COVID 19 and it is expressed thus:
Lockdowns
imposed to halt the spread of the coronavirus have been recently linked with
cleaner air quality over Europe and China. New images, from the Copernicus
Sentinel-5P satellite, from the European Union Copernicus programme, now show
some cities across India seeing levels drop by around 40–50% owing to its
nationwide quarantine.
On 25 March
2020, the Indian government placed its population of more than 1.3 billion
citizens under lockdown in an effort to reduce the spread of the COVID-19
disease. All non-essential shops, markets and places of worship were closed
with only essential services including water, electricity and health services
remaining active.
New
satellite maps, produced using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, show averaged
nitrogen dioxide concentrations over India from 1 January to 24 March 2020 and
25 March (the first day of the lockdown) to 20 April 2020 – compared to the
same time-frame as last year.
The
significant reduction in the concentrations can be seen over major cities
across India. Mumbai and Delhi saw drops of around 40-50% compared to the same
time last year.
RETURN
OF THE RISE
Measures
were put in place to contain COVID 19 as already indicated. These measures including
(lockdown) were gradually relaxed on basis that the incidence of the disease was
coming down. China, where COVID 19 was first detected ended its lockdown on
April 8, 2020 opening the way for industrial activities etc. When such
activities resumed a change was noticed in the quality of air.
From the web
address https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/china-coronavirus-lockdown-air-pollution-skies-a9499601.html
we gather how such change occurred in China:
“Air pollution in China is on
the rise following the end of the coronavirus lockdown,
satellite data has revealed.
Nitrogen
dioxide (NO2) pollution increased as the country began to reopen last month.
NO2 levels, represented by colour density on the maps, are seen to
intensify over areas including Wuhan, the suspected epicentre of the
outbreak, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The maps
were created using readings from the Sentinel-5P observation satellite,
following guidelines by the European Space Agency, and first appeared in
the META newsletter of the European Environmental
Bureau, (EEB), a network of organisations from more than 30 countries.”
Here it
being proved, scientifically, through satellite data that when man was taken
out of the natural environment, and their activities ceased, the air became
cleaner, however when man was put back into the natural environment and
activities resumed, the air became polluted again.
CONCLUSION
COVID 19, a
disease, is caused by SARS-CoV-2 a virus. From a spot in Wuhan, Hubei Province,
China it has enveloped the world. Because it is a new virus, as science tells
us, the world needed time to study it in order to overcome it. Meanwhile, the
virus is overwhelmingly spreading, throughout the world, setting the pace for a
new normal, even if temporarily.
In the midst
of the spread of the disease and man’s frantic efforts to contain it, through
measures like lockdown for example, positive bright spots in the natural
environment were being manifested, even if temporary. The measures taken by man
to contain the disease took man out of the natural environment and in so doing
the natural environment cleansed itself. As a result of lockdowns for example,
factories belching gases into the atmosphere to pollute it ceased, because man
ceased to work the factories. Automobiles on the streets were reduced because
of the lockdown, and with that a reduction in carbon dioxide released into the
atmosphere. In China for example, when the lockdown was removed, and the
factories started working again, atmospheric pollution started rising!
From the
foregoing the link between pollution and man is without a doubt reestablished,
to my mind. And that reminds us of the duty of man to take care of the natural
environment responsibly.
The lexicon
that has characterized this COVID 19 pandemic era and will serve as reminder to
man are social distancing, face mask,
PPE(personal protective equipment), lockdown, quarantine, isolation, self-
isolation, self-isolate, testing, COVID 19, coronavirus 19, coronavirus, food
banks, virtual conferencing, Zoom, recession, WFH(working from home), cases,
Wuhan, sanitizer, handwashing, the pandemic, teleconferencing, e-learning etc.
In my country Ghana, West Africa, there is also the term Veronica bucket which
I want to give particular mention. The bucket is a bucket fitted with a tap invented
by a Ghanaian woman, and named after her. Where there is no potable water,
Veronica bucket provides running water, which is important in the prevention of
the pandemic.
For me, as
one having passion for the natural environment, and from the natural environmental
perspective, the critically important reminder is that the link between the
activities of man and pollution of the natural environment was reestablished.
And hopefully, a reminder that will spark a revolutionary mentality in man to
conduct themselves in manners that will induce and result in the furtherance of
a clean and balanced natural environment sustainably.
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