Earth takes a breather...

group of diseases as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), of which an outbreak occurred in southern China from 2002 to 2003,” he said.

In 2017, it was discovered that the SARS-causing coronavirus was likely transmitted from horseshoe bats to humans through intermediaries such as civets, which were being sold in local markets and restaurants. Another coronavirus-related disease, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), was shown to have been transmitted to humans through dromedary camels. It was the cause of several outbreaks from 2012 to 2018, killing one-third of the diagnosed patients in multiple countries, including Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

“Currently, there is uncertainty regarding from where exactly the Covid-19 virus originated. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported that bats are its most likely sources. Others have alluded to the possibility of pangolins as a direct source of the virus, a notion that was recently disproven through genomic sequencing,” said Algo.

Environmental impact

There are three impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Algo, when it comes to the environment. First, the pathways of the transmission of these diseases is a re ection of just how interconnected and complex our environment is.

“The current challenges in determining the true source of the Covid19 virus indicate how vulnerable human communities are to potential threats to public health, especially if current environmentally-destructive practices continue,” he said. “After all, it is difficult to resolve issues of this magnitude when we do not even know their origins.”

Second, the outbreak signi es the need to obtain proper knowledge and understanding of the biodiversity that surrounds us and avoid endangering them even further.

“This is best exempli ed by the pangolins, which some ecologists fear will be killed en masse due to previous speculations that they are a direct source of the Covid-19 virus,” explained Algo.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, three of eight pangolin species are critically endangered, including the Palawan pangolin, an endemic species to the Philippines.

Even without being targeted due to the Covid-19 outbreak, they are already under threat from poaching for medicinal, dietary, and spiritual belief purposes. In fact, pangolins are the most heavily trafficked mammals in the world, with an estimated one million pangolins being smuggled from 2000 to 2013.

“The loss of pangolins, the only known mammals to be covered in scales, could lead to signi cant disruptions of ecosystems worldwide. They contribute to improving the nutrient quality of the soil and provide habitats for other animals. They also help regulate populations of pests such as ants and termites; a single pangolin can consume up to 70 million insects every year. At a time when their conservation should be prioritized, misleading information could simply drive them (and other species) closer to extinction,” Algo lamented.

Third, Algo said the outbreak proves once again that we fail to learn from our history.

“This reality is not just limited to armed con icts, political patterns, or social revolutions; it also applies to the way we treat our environment,” he added.

New approach and mindset

Now that the world has been reminded again of how disregarding others, humans or otherwise, could directly impact its well-being, perhaps this might nally initiate a chain reaction that could break us out of the self-destructive cycle.

“Maybe global and local laws and policies toward biodiversity conservation would nally be consistently and strictly enforced. Maybe more people would be proactive in joining calls and actions on preventing these outbreaks from happening again,” Algo said. “From now on, maybe the notion of protecting other life on earth will become as imprinted in our consciousness as sanitizing ourselves for self-preservation.”

Addressing the Covid-19 pandemic is not just a health issue, but also a commentary on how we regard our environment. Environmentalism is not just about having clean air or a noise-free morning, it is a change of the old mindset that whatever we do to the earth will not affect us—the pandemic has showed that it will not only take lives but will also disrupt drastically our way of life.