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
thing 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.
Bush meat 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 also grow and reproduce, which require energy
from food. They are mobilized from one species to another either through 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
thing 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.
Bush meat 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 also grow and reproduce, which require energy
from food. They are mobilized from one species to another either through 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.