Summer 2020, vol. XXXlll, No. 2 TABLE of CONTENTS SPECIAL FOCUS: 1 SPECIAL FOCUS Biodiversity and Human Health BIODIVERSITY AND HUMAN Author: Sehee Oh HEALTH 5 FOOD FOR THOUGHT Sustainable last-mile logistics Author: Farri Gaba 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 Source: https://news.un.org/en/story/2012/11/424842-cost-deforestation-kenya-far-exceeds-gains-forestry-and- logging-un-joint-study Cold War Nukes Tests Changed Rainfall 13 VOICES WIT Virtual Voices Online The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting all parts of human society. According to the World Health Organization, bats are the most High-Level Meeting on Sustainable Ocean Business UN World Environment Day probable carrier of the COVID-19. Ebola, SARS, bird flu and now COVID-19 are all believed to have started as pathogens crossing 845th International Online Conference on Environment and Natural Science from animals to humans.[1] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 11th Conference on Environmental Engineering and Application about three-quarters of new human diseases originate in animals. Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between 8th World Congress and Expo on Green Energy animals and people. Previous investigations found that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was transmitted from civet cats to 16 POINT OF VIEW Author: Richard Whiteford humans, while the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome passed from dromedary camels to humans.[2] “Education The frequency of disease outbreaks has been increasing steadily. brings Choices. Between 1980 and 2013 there were 12,012 recorded outbreaks, Choices bring comprising 44 million individual cases and affecting every country Power.” in the world.[3] The global number of emerging infectious disease outbreaks of causal The World Ecology Report is printed on recycled paper. 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. Fig: 1: Smith, K. F., (2014) Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4223919/figure/RSIF20140950F1/ 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 Biodiversity The word Biodiversity is a contraction of 'biological diversity'. Biodiversity is the name we give to the variety of all life on Earth. Fig 2: Biodiversity in forests/ Pixels Biodiversity means the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic If only a small number of species die out, there can be a huge effect ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part.[4] on the whole ecosystem since there are often chain effects which World Information Transfer 2 World Ecology Report Summer 2020 affect many other species. With the preservation of Biodiversity, it can be assured that the percent from August 2018 to the present. ecosystem stays in its natural balance. Also, the world population has experienced However, many biologists agree that we are in the midst of a mass extinction. Biodiversity exponential growth in the last 60 years, from loss can have significant direct human health impacts if the ecosystem is destroyed and can 3 billion in 1960 to 7.8 billion currently. We no longer meet humanities need. 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 Fig 3: Burning rainforests on Borneo and Sumatra/ UNEP pathogens or diseases. Also, the pathogens How Biodiversity Loss Affects Disease that have evolved in bats can adapt to peaks Biodiversity loss is hurting our ability to combat pandemics. Bats are being pointed out as of body temperature. Humans raise body the source of coronavirus; however, Bats are not to blame. Scientists claim that humans are temperature to kill a virus, however, viruses to blame for the spread of the disease. Diseases passed from animals to humans are on the from a bat can withstand an increase in body rise by proximity to human activity caused by deforestation and destruction of habitats. We temperature.[8] need to face the fundamental cause of why we have to go through the emergence of a new Prof. Eric Lambin, the School of Earth, Energy virus like COVID-19. & Environmental Sciences, says "Responding The immune system of animals is challenged, being hunted, or having its habitat damaged by to the underlying issues that force people and deforestation. Deforestation has increased steadily over the past three decades and is linked livestock into increasingly close contact with to 31% of outbreaks such as Ebola, Zika and Nipah viruses. Rainforests that once covered wild animals is crucial in preventing the next over 14% of the land of the earth have now dwindled to just 6%, according to National pandemic." Animals are being transported Geographic.[5] The loss of forest habitat, also, increases contact between humans and for medicine, pets, and food. nonhuman primates. A new study published in the Journal of Landscape Ecology points out A global wildlife trade worth billions of that the continued destruction of forest habitats, for agricultural use or human habitation, dollars and deforestation are bringing people causes this contact to become more frequent, as humans and nonhuman primates are forced closer to animals, exposing people to their into closer proximity.[6] For example, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has surged to pathogens.[9] Wild animals have always had its highest rate in more than a decade, according to new data from Brazil’s National Institute viruses coursing through their bodies but for Space Research (INPE). The latest results show that deforestation increased nearly 30 World Information Transfer World Ecology Report 3 Summer 2020 the transport is suppressing their immune systems. 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. 7. https://www.worldometers.info/world- population/ 8. https://www.natureworldnews.com/arti- cles/43572/20200329/coronavirus-bats- zoonotic-spillover.htm 9. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sci- ence/2020/04/03/coronavirus-wildlife- environment/ 10. https://www.theguardian.com/ world/2020/mar/25/coronavirus-na- ture-is-sending-us-a-message-says-un- environment-chief 11. https://www.greenbiz.com/article/biodi- versity-pandemics-and-circle-life Impacts of the coronavirus pandemic Fig 3: Animal transported in a cage/ Pixels on biodiversity conservation Prof Andrew Cunningham, of the Zoological Society of London, states that “The animals There have even been anecdotal reports have been transported over large distances and are crammed together into cages. They are of reduced human pressures on wild stressed and immunosuppressed and excreting whatever pathogens they have in them. With species. In protected areas, declines people in large numbers in the market and in intimate contact with the body fluids of these in visitor numbers caused by travel restrictions and park closures have animals, you have an ideal mixing bowl for disease emergence.[10] reduced stresses on sensitive animals Conclusion and trampling pressure on popular trails. Conservation derives much of The past 20 years of disease outbreaks could be viewed as a series of near-miss catastrophes, its public support from the accessibility which have led to complacency rather than the increased vigilance necessary to control of wild nature in protected areas but outbreaks. Currently, the seriousness of the COVID-19 situation will prompt key reduced human pressures in the most organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Epidemic popular parks will be good for sensitive species. We have also seen reports Preparedness (CEPI) - set up by the World Economic Forum in 2017 - to put preparations of wild species venturing into rural in place in order to prevent the current epidemic from becoming a pandemic. The links and urban areas, including parks and between pandemics and biodiversity are becoming better understood and appreciated and beaches, where they have not been hopefully, solutions will be addressed before the next pandemic.[11] seen for many years, as traffic and other In the movie 'Lion King', there is a statement "Everything you see exists together in a delicate human activity declines. In areas where travel is still possible and protected areas balance.” We are all connected in the great Circle of Life.