Corona Virus and Climate Change

Gautam Kumar Das

People, worldwide, are in bewilderment and perplexity as to what to do next. Almost all the people in 193 countries in and around the world have found life a puzzle in the context of current pandemic of Corona virus. The world leaders puzzled for the last two months over the mystic behaviour of COVID-19 and why the Corona virus did it is still a puzzle to the workers related to the health services including virologists and physicians.

A few doctor and specialists of virology explain such behaviour of Corona virus as a result of repeated mutations in the changing climatic conditions and different other changing physiological situations. There are too many rapid mutations to neatly trace a COVID-19 family tree. We used a mathematical network algorithm to visualise all the plausible trees simultaneously - said the geneticist Peter Forster, lead author of the study from the University of Cambridge, though Corona virus spread slows in India, rate of cases doubling improves to 7.5 days. But a grim news coming from the head of Covid task force states that India has entered stage 3, it means it’s everywhere, no way to contain or isolate. Community transmission is afoot.

The next 10 days it incubates and explodes. So the head of the Covid task force advise not to go out to buy anything, manage with what people have for next week. It’s better to think nothing is available except Covid and be careful as the Covid joke time is over. Such rapid incubation and explosion of Corona virus has been accelerated probably by changing climate. Climate change will affect all population groups, people living in small, developing island states and other coastal areas, metropolis, and mountains and the polar regions, but some groups are more vulnerable than others. Climate change is likely to lengthen the transmission seasons of viral diseases and vector-borne diseases and change their geographical zones.

Climatic conditions have a substantial impact on water borne diseases and diseases transmitted by insects, mussels, and other cold-blooded animals. Relationship in between health and climate change is well connected over the past 30 years where global warming has accelerated, exceeding 0.180C per decade. Sea levels are rising, glaciers are melting, and precipitation patterns are changing. Over the past 130 years, global temperatures have increased by about 0.850C.

Current pandemic of Corona virus now has become a global disaster. Worldwide, the number of weather-related natural disasters recorded has more than tripled since the 1960s. Each year, these disasters cause more than 60,000 deaths, mostly in developing countries like India - reported by the skymet weather, a non-government weather agency. India, a developing country having high population density is suceptable for Corona pandemic in ensuing days. If the community transmission of Corona virus starts in India particularly in the highly densely populated state of West Bengal, it simply breaks out an epidemic. That’s why central foreign minister S. Jaishankar is in charge of specific Corona-affected and suspected 23 districts in West Bengal. The straight-talking Jaishankar is given charge of West Bengal for smooth coordination with state’s mercurial Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations warned about after-effects of the Corona crises and simply it would be the crisis of food. Globally 83 million people were starving now, lock down due to the Corona crisis would make the number double. For this reason, farming has been exempted from lock down by the Government of India but social distancing has to be maintained.

In India, sown area of summer crops has registered 36% increase over last year. Further, a changing climate affects everyone, but it’s the world’s poorest and those in vulnerable situations, especially women and girls, who bear the brunt of environmental, economic and social shocks - told the UN Women. Anyway, climate will not be changed on a month or two as the climate is a long term event defined as - climate, conditions of the atmosphere at a particular location over a long period of time; it is the long-term summation of the atmospheric elements and their variations that, over short time periods, constitute weather. And this weather, because of its reduced effect of the atmosphere above the river, mountain, forest and in this pollution-free environment, nature has been recharged. People, free from the pandemic of Corona virus crises, like to visit them and will get separate pictures of freshness in comparison to the past and that happens of late to the Kotten forest. The forest authorities have seen an increase of 2 to 3 times more visitors in the Kotten forest since the physical distancing measures. Earth Day of 2020 mean a lot because even in the times of crises due to Corona virus we count on the nature like forests to give us relief.

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Apr 26, 2020