vii
Preface
While we were working on this two-volume book for the last 2 years, sitting in
two opposite hemispheres of the world and were moving towards completing it,
COVID-19 shook the world. As authors, we have now suddenly learnt a great
many things in just a few months while being locked down in our respective
countries.
Diseases do not simply search for people and attack them. We, as human beings,
invite them to us by producing chemicals and releasing them into our environments or invading forests and wild landscapes, which harbor viruses that jump to
new hosts – humans – from the conventional hosts – wild animals. However, it was
great to see most of the civic society across the world self-distancing or self-quarantining themselves as the case may be and stayed wherever they could to tackle
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vested interest and corruption are some of the reasons why pollution goes
unabated, waste goes unmanaged, and the environment goes unprotected. As natural
forests become fragmented, urban settlements integrate, bringing people closer,
thereby increasing the risk of infection and other ailments.
Bushmeat and wet markets act as springboards to pass on the pathogens in the
wild to civic society. Destruction of biodiversity creates the conditions for new diseases with profound economic and health impacts. Species in degraded habitats
infect humans, and when they reach urban ecosystems, the systems get an amplified
effect. With the destruction of landscapes and the wild species, humans get the
diseases.
Like all living beings, pathogens grow and reproduce, which requires energy
from food. They are mobilized from one species to another via either the food chain
or social activity or accidental contacts. When the pathogens reach humans, their
biological activity (e.g., spreading and transmission) flourish as humans live in
closely packed environments.
Diseases spring up in the urban environment as humans have created densely
packed settlements for themselves with rodents and pets, facilitating the spread of
pathogens from species to species due to close interaction.
Preface
While we were working on this two-volume book for the last 2 years, sitting in
two opposite hemispheres of the world and were moving towards completing it,
COVID-19 shook the world. As authors, we have now suddenly learnt a great
many things in just a few months while being locked down in our respective
countries.
Diseases do not simply search for people and attack them. We, as human beings,
invite them to us by producing chemicals and releasing them into our environments or invading forests and wild landscapes, which harbor viruses that jump to
new hosts – humans – from the conventional hosts – wild animals. However, it was
great to see most of the civic society across the world self-distancing or self-quarantining themselves as the case may be and stayed wherever they could to tackle
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vested interest and corruption are some of the reasons why pollution goes
unabated, waste goes unmanaged, and the environment goes unprotected. As natural
forests become fragmented, urban settlements integrate, bringing people closer,
thereby increasing the risk of infection and other ailments.
Bushmeat and wet markets act as springboards to pass on the pathogens in the
wild to civic society. Destruction of biodiversity creates the conditions for new diseases with profound economic and health impacts. Species in degraded habitats
infect humans, and when they reach urban ecosystems, the systems get an amplified
effect. With the destruction of landscapes and the wild species, humans get the
diseases.
Like all living beings, pathogens grow and reproduce, which requires energy
from food. They are mobilized from one species to another via either the food chain
or social activity or accidental contacts. When the pathogens reach humans, their
biological activity (e.g., spreading and transmission) flourish as humans live in
closely packed environments.
Diseases spring up in the urban environment as humans have created densely
packed settlements for themselves with rodents and pets, facilitating the spread of
pathogens from species to species due to close interaction.