Unprecedented: the toxic synergism of Covid-19 and climate change
Dear Editor
With the concurrence of climate change and Covid-19, human beings are witnessing two simultaneous cataclysmic pandemics for the first time in modern history. Both are existential threats not just to human beings but to the collective species that inhabit our planet.
Human beings are the most dominant animals on this planet. We can, via intellect and tools, literally change the face of the earth, and we have done so. The world community has been slow to acknowledge the negative consequences of our actions. This is not now possible; we now face two simultaneous pandemics, Covid-19 and climate change. For the most part, Covid-19 has been more ostensibly abrupt and brutal and climate change has been more insidious. Climate change and Covid-19 may at first appear to be disparate events, which by chance are occurring simultaneously. Upon closer scrutiny, this is not true.
There are commonalities of cause and effect (with one brief and unsustainable window of counterbalance). Both have anthropogenic roots. Both incur massive costs with respect to economies and human health, and for both, the initial victims of these costs are, disproportionately, those with fewer resources and fewer options; there is an increasing divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots.’ This divide could in turn have social and economic consequences yet unseen. Our power to change the planet has given us the responsibility to be its custodians. We can only hope that the devastation being caused by these concurrent pandemics will raise awareness to the point that we can be more proactive and do a better job of protecting the house that we live in.
Reference:
1. Joshi M, Caceres J, Ko S, Epps SM, Bartter T. Unprecedented: the toxic synergism of Covid-19 and climate change. Curr Opin Pulm Med. 2021 Mar 1;27(2):66-72. doi: 10.1097/MCP.0000000000000756. PMID: 33394750; PMCID: PMC7924924. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7924924/
Rapid Response:
Unprecedented: the toxic synergism of Covid-19 and climate change
Dear Editor
With the concurrence of climate change and Covid-19, human beings are witnessing two simultaneous cataclysmic pandemics for the first time in modern history. Both are existential threats not just to human beings but to the collective species that inhabit our planet.
Human beings are the most dominant animals on this planet. We can, via intellect and tools, literally change the face of the earth, and we have done so. The world community has been slow to acknowledge the negative consequences of our actions. This is not now possible; we now face two simultaneous pandemics, Covid-19 and climate change. For the most part, Covid-19 has been more ostensibly abrupt and brutal and climate change has been more insidious. Climate change and Covid-19 may at first appear to be disparate events, which by chance are occurring simultaneously. Upon closer scrutiny, this is not true.
There are commonalities of cause and effect (with one brief and unsustainable window of counterbalance). Both have anthropogenic roots. Both incur massive costs with respect to economies and human health, and for both, the initial victims of these costs are, disproportionately, those with fewer resources and fewer options; there is an increasing divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots.’ This divide could in turn have social and economic consequences yet unseen. Our power to change the planet has given us the responsibility to be its custodians. We can only hope that the devastation being caused by these concurrent pandemics will raise awareness to the point that we can be more proactive and do a better job of protecting the house that we live in.
Reference:
1. Joshi M, Caceres J, Ko S, Epps SM, Bartter T. Unprecedented: the toxic synergism of Covid-19 and climate change. Curr Opin Pulm Med. 2021 Mar 1;27(2):66-72. doi: 10.1097/MCP.0000000000000756. PMID: 33394750; PMCID: PMC7924924.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7924924/
Competing interests: No competing interests