The COVID-19 outbreak will not be the final pandemic in our profoundly interrelated world, and lamentably it will not be the nastiest. Two very distinctive conceivable futures are presented to us: one in which we gloze over as we have coherently done, and one where we take the firm, compulsory steps to safeguard ourselves.

If we fail to fundamentally cease the sweeping destruction of the environment and the exploitation of wildlife, it is highly likely for future pandemics to be deadlier, more recurrent, transmit more expeditiously and wreak aggravated economic impairments.

Habitat destruction is an indispensable requirement for the proliferation of new pandemics. As natural habitats wither, wildlife will concentrate in even smaller territories or relocate to anthropogenic areas which will trigger a brim over of diseases from wildlife to people. In addition, a growing body of research attests that bats, the seedbed of COVID-19, inherently host many viruses which they are most likely transmit to humans or animals if they live in or near human-disturbed ecosystems, such as recently cleared forests or swamps drained for housing projects, mining activities or intensive farming.

As discovered by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service (IPBES) Global Assessment 2019 Report, the recipe for a perfect storm of new diseases entails the following human activities: exploitation of wildlife, unbridled deforestation, untrammelled expansion of agriculture, factory farming, intensive mining and intense infrastructure development.

Therefore, we need to reconfigure about how we treat nature and wildlife. This is because diseases are naturally attenuated in the wild, but this is no longer so when humans precipitously interrupt the ecological equilibrium. One of the most positive things that we can gather from the frightful COVID-19 tragedy is the cognizance that there is a connection between how we treat nature and our wellbeing.

Promiscuous treatment of nature

And there is a particular species that is guilty for the COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics – the human species. As with the climate and biodiversity quagmires, the neoteric pandemics are a first-hand aftereffect of human activities. Thus, if we do not amend or rectify our promiscuous treatment of nature, there is no doubt that there will be more deadly pandemics such as or worse than COVID-19.

For instance, a controversial statement was recently released by the newly appointed Minister of a state in northwest Malaysia, that his new administration was re-considering to re-open the state’s logging concession. We must bear in mind that deforestation and other forms of land transfiguration will dislodge exotic species out of their evolutionary niches and into manmade environments, where they will interact and breed new strains of disease. It is important to take note that, three-quarters of novel or newly appeared diseases that infect humans originate in animals, but it is human activity that magnifies the risks of contagion.

The IPBES Global Assessment 2019 Report has also made the most encyclical assessment of global nature loss ever. The report highlighted and emphasized that more than one million species of plants and animals are at risk of extinction in coming decades.

For instance, this year’s Earth Day, on April 22, as humans have recoiled indoors to discourage the spread of the virus, we are discovering how the ecological systems respond to our absenteeism from public spaces. In parallel, our planet, and our comprehension of it, keeps altering at a wild pace. Regular temperatures are escalating, natural systems are deteriorating, and our susceptibility is heightened.

Since the last Earth Day, we have witnessed even more confirmation that the extraordinary heterogeneity of life on this planet is diminishing. Concurring with Louie Psihoyos, “our planet is currently undergoing a mass extinction of species called the Anthropocene”, every year we are saying adieu to many species forever and this past year was no different.

Creatures like the Sumatran rhino, the Cryptic Treehunter bird and the Chinese paddlefish, were pronounced extinct in the past year. Others like the Malayan tiger are expeditiously fading, now extinct in many of the places they once lived. These extinctions are being driven by habitat loss due to deforestation, climate change and pollution birthed by human activities.

Humanising the human race

It appears the COVID-19 pandemic has given Earth a gift. The coronavirus has taken billions of people off the streets around the world and incised international travel. And all those people staying at home seem to be a collective weight off the shoulders of the global environment in certain observable ways.

The COVID-19 pandemic is humanizing the human race that we need to reconfigure our relationship with the natural world. COVID-19 is the product of our dysfunctional relationship with nature. When this health crisis passes, world leaders must rehabilitate and restore the global economy on a healthier and more sustainable track.

The world’s economy is grounded on a limited paradigm that treasures economic expansion at any costs. As a result of that, we have a small window of opportunity, to prevail over the challenges of the current crisis and to eschew sowing the seeds of future pandemics.

There is the crying need for governments to toughen and enforce environmental regulations and to only deploy stimulus packages that offer incentives for more sustainable and nature-positive activities. And there is also the imperious need to recognize the intricate interconnections among the health of people, animals, plants and our shared environment.

Such transformative change is clamant and requires governments to promote social and environmental responsibilities across all technological, economic and social sectors. This is because, the connection between environmental stress and human health had been made more ostensible by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The song Hijau (Green) which was released on May 31, 1991 by Malaysia’s homegrown artist Zainal Abidin, carries important and meaningful bytes such as the following: “Bumi yang tiada rimba (Earth without its forests), Seumpama hamba (Is nothing more than a slave), Dia dicemar manusia (She is being violated by humans),Yang jahil ketawa (Who are laughing ignorantly), Bumi yang tiada udara (Earth without air, Bagai tiada nyawa (Is lifeless), Pasti hilang suatu hari (One day it will definitely disappear), Tanpa disedari (Without us realising it), Bumi tanpa lautan (Earth without its oceans, Akan kehausan (Will parched), Pasti lambat laun hilang (Soon everything will disappear), Duniaku yang malang (My unfortunate earth), Dewasa ini kita saling merayakan (Now we are celebrating our successes, Kejayaan yang akhirnya membinasakan” (Successes which will in the end destruct us).

Need to correct damage

Looking at what is happening now, the essence of this song has become fiercer than ever; which is, it is critical to protect and conserve the elements of the Earth's ecosystem, including water, air, land, animals, and plants, along with its entire habitats.

The song is also implicitly telling us that the effects of human development and activities such as overpopulation, commercial logging, urbanization and global warming are harming and altering the Earth's natural state. Thus, we need to work towards correcting these damages to prevent future destruction.

Bear in mind, that the Earth we share is not just a rock tossed through space, but a living nurturing being. As read by the great Dalai Lama “It is our collective and individual responsibility to preserve and tend to the environment in which we all live in”. Most importantly, it is germane for us to remind ourselves that we do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, but we are borrowing it from our children.

-- BERNAMA

Dr Suzianah Nhazzla Ismail has a PhD in Politics from the University of Sheffield in the area of Animal Politics and Environmental Ethics. She is currently the one and only expert in that field in Southeast Asia.