The Ecology of a Pandemic
Two seemingly disparate crises — COVID-19 and Climate Change — may actually share much deeper roots.
The novel coronavirus COVID-19 is believed to have emerged at a “Wet Market” in the province of Hubei, China. These markets are said to sometimes sell the meat of wild animals, among a variety of other goods. Due to the lack of a deeper interrogation of the complex ecological factors involved, many have come away with a shallow understanding of this process. A simplified version of events has been used by many, including the President of the United States, to justify racist attitudes and violence against people of east Asian descent.
The truth is that disease experts have been warning about potential zoonotic pandemics for decades, and there is evidence to suggest a much deeper root cause for an increase in emergent infectious diseases: ecological disruption.
First, let’s define a zoonotic disease. According to the CDC:
Animals can sometimes carry harmful germs that can spread to people and cause illness — these are known as zoonotic diseases or zoonoses. Zoonotic diseases are caused by harmful germs like viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi. These germs can cause many different types of illnesses in people and animals, ranging from mild to serious…
