Environment, Climate Change, and COVID-19
By: Aikya Param
Tags: Business, Health, Coronavirus, Leadership, Science

Environment, Climate Change, and COVID-19

Work on one, impact all!

Wawel Royal Castle in Krakow, Poland during a Jan. 14, 2020 smog alert. Nurphoto via Getty Images

There are three environmental issues highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. They are air quality, protection of wild animals, and preservation of the wild areas and ecosystems that sustain them. The pandemic shows how important it is to world health to value and protect all of them. This link says that my health is connected to the health of the environment and the wellbeing of wild animals that I may never see. Previously, my lifelong prayerful purpose — “May it be for the beenfit of all beings.” — has been abstract. The link declared by research scientists in the past six months puts it in my world available to all my senses.

Since noteworthy research was done by scietntists in Italy, I focus on that country. Italy was the first European country to be affected by COVID-19 with 143,626 confirmed total cases and 18,279 deaths to date. The illness mainly impacted northern Italy, the same area with worst air pollution.The Swiss air monitoring program IQ Air reported that Italy and Poland have the worst air pollution with the highest amount of toxic particulate matter in the European Union.

Why was the mortality rate from the virus in northern Italy 12% whereas it is 4.5% in the rest of Italy? At Aarhus University, the environmental scientist Dario Caro from the Department of Environmental Science, and two health researchers, prof. Bruno Frediani and Dr. Edoardo Conticini, from the University of Siena in Italy investigated this. The single factor that differentiates the north is extremely high air pollution.

Early in the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy, a team of scientists led by University of Bologna’s Leonardo Setti found that COVID-19 RNA attached itself to particles of air pollution in Bergamo. Where the virus is carried by particulate matter, we see a cluster of people suffering from COVID-19. This study shows that, under certain air quality conditions, the disease can be carried in the air.

The novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is thought to have come from a bat at the wet market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in China. The bat was a wild animal being sold as a food source. The market in Wuhan sold wild animals In December 2019 when the the worldwide pandemic started. The National Geographic tells us:

(W)et markets are typically large collections of open-air stalls selling fresh seafood, meat, fruits, and vegetables. Some wet markets sell and slaughter live animals on site, including chickens, fish, and shellfish. In China, they’re a staple of daily life for many. More rarely, wet markets also sell wild animals and their meat. The Huanan market, for example, had a wild animal section where live and slaughtered species were for sale: snakes, beavers, porcupines, and baby crocodiles, among other animals.

That market was shut down on January 1, 2020. On February 24,2020, China banned the purchase, sale, and consumption of wild animals.

Wuhan was included in a Greenpeace ranking of the 74 cities in China with the worst PM 2.5 air pollution. PM 2.5 is particulate matter small enough to enter the bloodstream once it is inhaled. It is the same as the particles Dr. Setti saw could carry COVID-19 RNA.

So bad air quality, especially pollution full of PM 2.5, not only makes COVID-19 symptoms more severe, it also can carry the virus and infect people.

Supporting nonprofit organizations that advocate for environmental protection, sustainable agriculture and forestry, and wildlife preservation supports individual and planetary health. Here are three organizations to consider supporting: