Panic buying and plastic pollution

In a video titled ‘COVID-19 & Biodiversity’, released by Biodiversity Sri Lanka to mark the International Day for Biological Diversity on Friday, Emeritus Prof. Sarath Kotagama who is Chair of Environmental Science at the Colombo University expresses concern over panic buying during the pandemic, increased waste and plastic pollution.

Whether it is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Ebola, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) or the latest COVID-19, he says that all these have been zoonotic diseases. From 1960 to 2004, 334 diseases of varying virulence have emerged out of nature.

“This is an SOS (the distress signal to ‘Save Our Souls’) from nature that we should act more responsibly and not repeat the mistakes of the past such as mass- scale deforestation,” he cautions.

Biodiversity Sri Lanka is a national platform owned and driven by the private sector to promote strong engagement in biodiversity and environmental conservation.