Source: https://news.un.org/en/story/2012/11/424842-cost-deforestation-kenya-far-exceeds-gains-forestry-and- logging-un-joint-study e COVID-19 pandemic is impacting all parts of human society. According to the World Health Organization, bats are the most probable carrier of the COVID-19. Ebola, SARS, bird flu and now COVID-19 are all believed to have started as pathogens crossing from animals to humans.[1] e Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about three-quarters of new human diseases originate in animals. Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Previous investigations found that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was transmitted from civet cats to humans, while the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome passed from dromedary camels to humans.[2] e frequency of disease outbreaks has been increasing steadily. Between 1980 and 2013 there were 12,012 recorded outbreaks, comprising 44 million individual cases and affecting every country in the world.[3] e global number of emerging infectious disease outbreaks of causal The World Ecology Report is printed on recycled paper. SPECIAL FOCUS: “Education brings Choices. Choices bring Power.” Ssummer 2020, vol. XXXlll, No. 2 BIODIVERSITY AND HUMAN HEALTH TABLE of CONTENTS 1 SPECIAL FOCUS Biodiversity and Human Health 5 FOOD FOR THOUGHT Sustainable last-mile logistics 9 GOOD NEWS The EU to Plant 3 Billion Trees by 2030 Dutch Government Announced Emission Cuts Algae Transplant could Protect Coral Reefs from Warming Seas Earth School Launches in time for Covid19 11 DID YOU KNOW Unbearable Bouts of Heat and Humidity on the Rise Deforestation of Amazon Rain Forest Cold War Nukes Tests Changed Rainfall 13 VOICES WIT Virtual Voices Online High-Level Meeting on Sustainable Ocean Business UN World Environment Day 845th International Online Conference on Environment and Natural Science 11th Conference on Environmental Engineering and Application 8th World Congress and Expo on Green Energy 16 POINT OF VIEW
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The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting all parts of human society. According to the World Health Organization, bats are the most probable carrier of the COVID-19. Ebola, SARS, bird flu and now COVID-19 are all believed to have started as pathogens crossing from animals to humans.[1] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about three-quarters of new human diseases originate in animals. Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Previous investigations found that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was transmitted from civet cats to humans, while the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome passed from dromedary camels to humans.[2]The frequency of disease outbreaks has been increasing steadily. Between 1980 and 2013 there were 12,012 recorded outbreaks, comprising 44 million individual cases and affecting every country in the world.[3]The global number of emerging infectious disease outbreaks of causal
The World Ecology Report is printed on recycled paper.
SPECIAL FOCUS:
“Education brings Choices. Choices bring
Power.”
Ssummer 2020, vol. XXXlll, No. 2
BIODIVERSITY AND HUMAN HEALTH
TABLE of CONTENTS 1 SPECIAL FOCUS Biodiversity and Human Health
5 FOOD FOR THOUGHT Sustainable last-mile logistics 9 GOOD NEWS
The EU to Plant 3 Billion Trees by 2030
Dutch Government Announced Emission Cuts
Algae Transplant could Protect Coral Reefs from Warming Seas
Earth School Launches in time for Covid19
11 DID YOU KNOWUnbearable Bouts of Heat and Humidity on the Rise
Deforestation of Amazon Rain Forest
Cold War Nukes Tests Changed Rainfall
13 VOICESWIT Virtual Voices Online
High-Level Meeting on Sustainable Ocean Business
UN World Environment Day
845th International Online Conference on Environment and Natural Science
11th Conference on Environmental Engineering and Application
8th World Congress and Expo on Green Energy
16 POINT OF VIEW
World Ecology ReportWorld Information Transfer
Summer 20202
diseases from 1980–2010 is shown in Fig.1(chart). Outbreak records are plotted with respect to (a) total global outbreaks (left axis, bars) and
total number of diseases causing outbreaks in each year (right axis, dots), (b) host type, (c) pathogen taxonomy and (d) transmission mode.
A number of trends have contributed to this rise, significant increase
in human population, including high levels of global travel, trade
and connectivity, and high-density living - but the links to climate
change and biodiversity are the most striking. It is important to
address the multiple and often interacting threats to ecosystems
and wildlife to prevent zoonoses from emerging, including habitat
loss and fragmentation, illegal trade, pollution, invasive species
and, increasingly, climate change. Our world is changing, and the
conservation community must be ready to respond.
What is BiodiversityThe word Biodiversity is a contraction of 'biological diversity'.
Biodiversity is the name we give to the variety of all life on Earth.
Biodiversity means the variability among living organisms from all
sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic
ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part.[4]
Fig 2: Biodiversity in forests/ Pixels
If only a small number of species die out, there can be a huge effect
on the whole ecosystem since there are often chain effects which
Fig: 1: Smith, K. F., (2014)Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4223919/figure/RSIF20140950F1/
3World Ecology ReportWorld Information Transfer
Summer 2020
affect many other species. With the preservation of Biodiversity, it can be assured that the
ecosystem stays in its natural balance.
However, many biologists agree that we are in the midst of a mass extinction. Biodiversity
loss can have significant direct human health impacts if the ecosystem is destroyed and can
no longer meet humanities need.
Fig 3: Burning rainforests on Borneo and Sumatra/ UNEP
How Biodiversity Loss Affects DiseaseBiodiversity loss is hurting our ability to combat pandemics. Bats are being pointed out as
the source of coronavirus; however, Bats are not to blame. Scientists claim that humans are
to blame for the spread of the disease. Diseases passed from animals to humans are on the
rise by proximity to human activity caused by deforestation and destruction of habitats. We
need to face the fundamental cause of why we have to go through the emergence of a new
virus like COVID-19.
The immune system of animals is challenged, being hunted, or having its habitat damaged by
deforestation. Deforestation has increased steadily over the past three decades and is linked
to 31% of outbreaks such as Ebola, Zika and Nipah viruses. Rainforests that once covered
over 14% of the land of the earth have now dwindled to just 6%, according to National
Geographic.[5] The loss of forest habitat, also, increases contact between humans and
nonhuman primates. A new study published in the Journal of Landscape Ecology points out
that the continued destruction of forest habitats, for agricultural use or human habitation,
causes this contact to become more frequent, as humans and nonhuman primates are forced
into closer proximity.[6] For example, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has surged to
its highest rate in more than a decade, according to new data from Brazil’s National Institute
for Space Research (INPE). The latest results show that deforestation increased nearly 30
percent from August 2018 to the present.
Also, the world population has experienced
exponential growth in the last 60 years, from
3 billion in 1960 to 7.8 billion currently. We
have added 800 million people every ten
years to this planet. It took 200 years to reach
7 billion from 1 billion.[7] We are forcing
the interaction with wild animals through
transformation of the land from forests to
farming.
According to Kate Jones, Chair of Ecology
and Biodiversity at University College
London, “When a bat is stressed from
being hunted or having its habitat damaged
by deforestation, its immune system is
challenged and it finds it difficult to manage
pathogens. It is like having a cold sore virus
when stressed, thus leading to a cold sore.
Furthermore, bats are the only mammals
that can fly. This ability allows them to
scatter over a large area, carrying with them
pathogens or diseases. Also, the pathogens
that have evolved in bats can adapt to peaks
of body temperature. Humans raise body
temperature to kill a virus, however, viruses
from a bat can withstand an increase in body
temperature.[8]
Prof. Eric Lambin, the School of Earth, Energy
& Environmental Sciences, says "Responding
to the underlying issues that force people and
livestock into increasingly close contact with
wild animals is crucial in preventing the next
pandemic." Animals are being transported
for medicine, pets, and food.
A global wildlife trade worth billions of
dollars and deforestation are bringing people
closer to animals, exposing people to their
pathogens.[9] Wild animals have always had
viruses coursing through their bodies but
World Ecology ReportWorld Information Transfer
Summer 20204
the transport is suppressing their immune systems.
Fig 3: Animal transported in a cage/ Pixels
Prof Andrew Cunningham, of the Zoological Society of London, states that “The animals
have been transported over large distances and are crammed together into cages. They are
stressed and immunosuppressed and excreting whatever pathogens they have in them. With
people in large numbers in the market and in intimate contact with the body fluids of these
animals, you have an ideal mixing bowl for disease emergence.[10]
ConclusionThe past 20 years of disease outbreaks could be viewed as a series of near-miss catastrophes,
which have led to complacency rather than the increased vigilance necessary to control
outbreaks. Currently, the seriousness of the COVID-19 situation will prompt key
organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Epidemic
Preparedness (CEPI) - set up by the World Economic Forum in 2017 - to put preparations
in place in order to prevent the current epidemic from becoming a pandemic. The links
between pandemics and biodiversity are becoming better understood and appreciated and
hopefully, solutions will be addressed before the next pandemic.[11]
In the movie 'Lion King', there is a statement "Everything you see exists together in a delicate
balance.” We are all connected in the great Circle of Life.
6. Geist, H. J., & Lambin, E. F. (2002). Proximate Causes and Underlying Driv-ing Forces of Tropical DeforestationTrop-ical forests are disappearing as the result of many pressures, both local and region-al, acting in various combinations in dif-ferent geographical locations. BioScience, 52(2), 143-150.
There have even been anecdotal reports of reduced human pressures on wild species. In protected areas, declines in visitor numbers caused by travel restrictions and park closures have reduced stresses on sensitive animals and trampling pressure on popular trails. Conservation derives much of its public support from the accessibility of wild nature in protected areas but reduced human pressures in the most popular parks will be good for sensitive species. We have also seen reports of wild species venturing into rural and urban areas, including parks and beaches, where they have not been seen for many years, as traffic and other human activity declines. In areas where travel is still possible and protected areas remain open, visitation has often greatly increased, reflecting a widespread feeling that activity in a natural setting is both a physical and a mental antidote to the stress of the pandemic. We predict it will increase in other areas too when restrictions are loosened.
Sources:1. "The Future of the Last-Mile Ecosystem,"
World Economic Forum, 2020.2. J. Clement, "Retail e-commerce sales
worldwide from 2014 to 2023," Statis-ta, 19 March 2020. [Online]. Avail-able: https://www.statista.com/statistics/379046/worldwide-retail-e-commerce-sales/. [Accessed April 2020].
4. [4] "Average last-mile delivery cost worldwide in 2018, by type of costs," Statista, 26 August 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.statista.com/sta-tistics/973182/last-mile-delivery-aver-age-cost/. [Accessed April 2020].
5. M. R. Hannah Ritchie, "Urbanization," Our World In Data, 16 05 2020. [On-line]. Available: https://ourworldindata.org/urbanization.
6. "World’s population increasingly urban with more than half living in urban ar-eas," United Nations, 10 July 2014. [On-line]. Available: https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects-2014.html. [Accessed April 2020].
7. "The Road to Sustainable Urban Logis-tics," United Parcel Service of America, 2017.
8. "Traffic Data Viewer," Department of Transportation, 2016. [Online]. Avail-able: https://www.dot.ny.gov/tdv. [Ac-cessed April 2020].
THE EUROPEAN UNION IS GOING TO
PLANT 3 BILLION TREES BY 2030.
The European Union is planning to plant
3 billion trees, over the next decade in one
piece of a larger commitment to protect
nature on the continent. This comes at a
time when a million species, globally, are
now at risk of extinction, and biodiversity
loss also threatens future pandemics. In
a new strategy document, the European
Commission says it now aims to protect
30% of the region’s land and oceans, based
on science that suggests that amount is
necessary to preserve biodiversity.
According to Brian O’Donnell, director of
the nonprofit Campaign for Nature, “this is
the first truly serious, continent-wide, all-
of-government biodiversity strategy that
we’ve seen. It addresses both conserving and
protecting the best of nature that remains
and restoring new areas. Brian further
stated that the tree-planting component is
something that will get a number of people’s
attention. But it’s only one part of what he
thinks is a comprehensive biodiversity
strategy for Europe.”
Other parts of the plan include limiting
pesticide pollution and new approaches to
agriculture. But forests play an important
role—in Ireland, for example, around 90%
of forested areas have been lost. A 2018
study suggests that at least half of Europe’s
forests have disappeared over the last 6,000
years. “There’s a huge opportunity to do
reforestation and to bring back some of the
original function of the ecosystems there.
Tree planting and reforestation will also be
essential in Europe as areas heat up—this
will be a strategy not just for biodiversity but
in helping cities stay cooler.” Some cities, like
Madrid, are already beginning to add more
greenery to prepare. Tree planting can also
help fight climate change, another major
reason that species are threatened.
Bringing back more trees, along with
protecting the forests that still exist, could
also help wildlife rebound. “If you look
at the areas around Chernobyl that were
abandoned and forest were able to regrow,
it’s incredible the diversity of wildlife that has
Wales announced the government-led, $5.9 million project to create a National Forest in order to preserve nature, improve biodiversity, and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Other goals include their "commitment to tackling climate change." The plan is set to plant on 5,000 acres of land each year to eventually increasing to 10,000 acres per year in order to hopefully meet their mark of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. Source: https://www.greenmatters.com/p/wales-build-ing-national-forest
11World Ecology ReportWorld Information Transfer
Summer 2020
ALGAE TRANSPLANT COULD PROTECT CORAL REEFS FROM
WARMING SEAS
It may be possible to protect coral reefs from the warming oceans
by colonizing them with heat-resistant algae. Patrick Buerger at
CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, and his colleagues have
developed ‘heat-tolerant’ corals, in a breakthrough that could prove
a lifeline for the world’s coral reefs. They heated Symbiodiniaceae
algae to 31°C in a laboratory for four years to train it to tolerate more
heat than it is used to. The algae eventually evolved genetic changes
that hinted at greater heat resistance. The adapted coral can survive
temperatures similar to those seen in ocean heatwaves which have
caused mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in recent years. The
world is on track to blow past the climate thresholds that would keep
corals alive, making the Australian discovery potentially crucial for
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Business and the 2030 Agenda. Senior executives from business, academia, civil society,
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Organizer: International Conference on Environmental
Engineering and Applications. 2020 11th International Conference
on Environmental Engineering and Applications (ICEEA 2020)
is the premier forum for the presentation of new advances and
research results in the fields of theoretical, experimental, and applied
Environmental Engineering and Applications. The conference will
bring together leading researchers, engineers, and scientists in the
domain of interest from around the world.
Source: http://www.iceea.org/
These events are staring our leaders right in the face, but our monot-
onous drone of warnings present them with such an inconvenient
truth that they prefer to ignore it. It doesn’t have to be this way.
A giant first step would be to divert government fossil industry
investments into clean energy technologies. An IEA analysis
report shows that governments drive around 70% of global energy
investments.
The climate crisis dictates that governments divert those investments
into sustainable energy. Yet, according to information compiled
by Bloomberg, since the Paris Climate Change Agreement banks
financed over $700 billion in fossil industry projects. It’s no wonder
renewable energy businesses can’t thrive when the finances are
biased toward the fossil industry creating such an enormous unfair
playing field!
Considering that governments hold the power to drive investments,
they are also the only ones with the power to fund and support large
research projects and infrastructure changes like retooling power
grids and converting energy resources from fossil to renewables on
large regional or national scales. They need to be driving investments
toward solar, wind, nuclear, hydrogen, new battery technologies, and
carbon capture technologies and energy efficient buildings.
The Coronavirus isolation proves to us how efficient working at
home can be for certain sectors of the economy. Jobs that can be
done via telecommuting reduces the time and money needed to
commute to and from the workplace. Corporations would save
millions of dollars and valuable work time by not traveling to offsite
meetings and conferences by holding webinars instead. If this were
to become permanent, it would reduce city traffic, the need for so
many parking lots, the strain on public transportation and reduce
the CO2 and pollution emissions associated with it. Universities
worldwide should use their talents and resources to provide research
and technical innovations that will move us into the new energy
paradigm. Creating a new clean energy economy can create a better
job market for thousands of people.
The billionaire leaders of the free market system and our
governments are making it quite clear that nothing is going to
change as long as the money keeps rolling in. Greta ‘s parting words
in a rally in Stockholm, Sweden said it well, “It shouldn’t be up to us
children and teenagers to make people wake up around the world.
The ones in charge should be ashamed.”
Author: RICHARD WHITEFORDWIT Board of Directors
Point of View (from Page 16)
15World Ecology ReportWorld Information Transfer
Summer 2020
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POINT OF VIEW In spite of all the Earth Day celebrations, all the environmental
protest rallies, all the political lobbying over decades, all the
newspaper articles and all the United Nations Conferences of the
Parties (COP) trying to bring the attention of the urgency of climate
change to the world, it took a young lady from Sweden, Greta
Thunberg, to get the world’s attention.
Realizing that if we keep burning fossil fuels, she won’t have a future
by the time she’s in her mid-forties, she felt it was imperative to speak
up. She asked herself, what good is school if I won’t survive anyway,
so she started by skipping school on Fridays. She began by sitting in
front of the Swedish parliament building in protest. This evolved into
a movement called “#FridaysForFuture that grew to over 1.6 million
youth in 133 countries. They call out governments, corporations and
their parents to stop burning fossil fuels immediately to protect their
futures.
Greta participated in the United Nations Climate Action Summit
in 2019 and emphatically appealed to attending world leaders, “Can
you hear me?” She admonished them, “Shame on you,” for doing
nothing to cut carbon emissions to save humanity’s future. The GAP
analysis Report of 2019 states, “Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
have risen at a rate of 1.5 percent per year in the last decade. Total
GHG emissions, including from land-use change, reached a record
high of 55.3 GtCO2e in 2018. Fossil CO2 emissions from energy
use and industry, which dominate total GHG emissions, grew 2.0
percent in 2018, reaching a record 37.5 GtCo2 per year. As IPCC
scientist Katherine Hayhoe points out, CO2 in the atmosphere is
now higher than anytime in the last 15 million years. Nationally
Determined Contributions (NDCs) must be increased fivefold
in 2020 to achieve the 1.5° C goal of emission cuts by 2050. Not
one member of the G20 countries have committed to a timeline to
achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
According to the OECD-IEA’s estimates, there is around 53 years of
oil, 54 years of natural gas and 110 years of coal left to burn before we
run out. Easily more than enough to cook the planet. The U.S. Energy
Information Administration (EIA) projects a 28% increase in world
energy use by 2040. Fossil fuels are projected to comprise 75% of that
based on a business-as-usual trend, global carbon dioxide emissions
are forecast to increase to some 43.08 billion metric tons in 2050, in
comparison to 35.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2018.
Since COVID-19 brought world industries to their knees, dropping
CO2 emissions abruptly by as much as 25% particularly in China.
For one thing, this, proves that burning carbon is causing climate
change, not a natural cycle. Don’t think that we’re off the hook with
climate change because of the temporary decrease, we’ve pumped so
much carbon into the atmosphere that NOAA recorded carbon levels
at 414.50 parts per million (PPM) in March 2020. That carbon will
remain up there for a century or two heating up the planet. Surely, as
soon as the pandemic is gone industry will slam back into gear and
run at breakneck capacity to regain its losses and CO2 emissions will
increase exponentially.
The insanity of free market capitalism is exposed by their continuing
pursuit of a fossil-based economy while seemingly blind to the blatant
evidence that’s staring them right in the face. Evidence like NOAA’s,
shows that January 2020 was the 44th consecutive January and the
421st consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th century
average and between Greenland and Antarctica 6.4 trillion tons of
ice melted since the 1990s. In Australia over a billion animals were
burned and wildfires ravished California and many other parts of
the world. Droughts and sea level rise is forcing populations to flee
into unwanted territories and a recent study shows that if we fail
to cut CO2 enough to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 C climate
damage disruption will cost the world $36 trillion.