Healthy Nature, Healthy People: What COVID-19 Taught Us About Resilience
In April 2020, as COVID-19 shut down the world, I wrote that human health is tightly linked to how we treat the environment. Six years on, that lesson belongs in every recovery plan, including Jamaica's after Melissa.
Dr. Peter Edwards3 min read
In April 2020, a few weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, I marked Earth Day with an op-ed in The Gleaner on behalf of the Jamaica Institute of Environmental Professionals. My argument was that the pandemic had confirmed something easy to overlook: human health and wellbeing are tightly linked to how we treat the natural world. The lockdowns are behind us now, and it is tempting to file that lesson away. As Jamaica rebuilds after Hurricane Melissa and endures an El Niño drought, it is worth taking out again.
When diseases jump from animals to people
COVID-19 is widely believed to be a zoonotic disease, one that passed from animals to people, although its exact origin is still debated. Many of the most dangerous new diseases of recent decades, including Ebola and the first SARS outbreak, followed that path. Research shows the risk rises as we destroy habitat, trade wildlife and push farms and cities deeper into wild places, bringing people into closer contact with animals that carry viruses. International bodies, including the UN Environment Programme and the World Bank, have said the same: preventing the next pandemic means tackling habitat loss, illegal wildlife trade, pollution, invasive species and climate change.
Why it mattered at home
The virus came from far away, but how hard it hit Jamaica depended on conditions at home. Smoke from dump fires and dust from bauxite, limestone and sand mining harm the lungs of the people who live nearby. Forests such as Cockpit Country and Long Mountain protect the water supply we needed to wash our hands. Overfished reefs and a collapsed conch fishery meant fewer local sources of protein when supply chains faltered. Weak post-harvest storage and distribution left domestic food security fragile. A tourism economy built largely on all-inclusive hotels and cruise ships shut down almost overnight. And crowded development with too little green space made it harder for people to get outdoors while keeping their distance.
A stress test for the whole system
The pandemic was a stress test that exposed weaknesses in our systems, in Jamaica and in wealthy countries alike. Nearly every weakness it found had an environmental dimension. Hurricanes, droughts and extreme heat run the same test, again and again. A country with healthy forests, clean air, secure water, productive fisheries and a diversified economy passes it far better than one without.
Building back better, again
In 2020 the global rallying cry was #BuildBackBetter. After Melissa we hear it again, and it should mean something concrete. Each of us can reduce our own impact on nature. Together we can press government and the private sector for systemic change: better control of the pollution that damages our health, better public transport, stronger checks on diseases arriving through imported plants and animals, protected watersheds and a more diverse economy. A strong, healthy environment is one of our best buffers against the next shock, whether it is a virus, a storm or a drought. Mistreating Mother Nature can have deadly consequences.
Adapted from “COVID-19 and Its Links to Environmental Degradation,” written by Peter Edwards on behalf of the Jamaica Institute of Environmental Professionals (The Gleaner, April 23, 2020).