Pandemic - An Unsustainable Biome

Image: Adam Niescioruk

How do we live more sustainably in a pandemic? And after?

Your eco wake-up call

Information is based on expert epidemiologists, immunologists, mathematicians, policy experts and opinion. Where possible the original content has been linked too.

There is an alarming ringing, you can't turn it off.

It's time to wake up and rise to a new dawn.

Some have commenced the sustainable living path, some are just starting too - there is no choice, sustainability is the new dawn. We all must choose sustainability in everything we do, produce and consume. Or we die, because of the planet chokes, burns, floods, pandemics all of the above.

Why a pandemic has everything to do with a lack of sustainability

Human needs must be coupled with the stability of the natural system, resources and our earth's ecosystem.

The way the world was living at the start of the coronavirus pandemic 2020 was not stability sustainable.

Our environment can not maintain the effects causes through pollution of water, air and earth. Our unsustainable living is causing our environment to change, we are the puppeteers of climate change. The earth's eco-system is unstable, resources are inventable leading to exhaustion and without this balance, the global economic markets will not survive.

Many climate change experts had highlighted 2020 as the critical year as we entire into the global warming era. They got that right.

The New Year started with catastrophic bushfires in Australia, months of smoked engulfed the Australian continent, lives were lost, a billion animals (not including insects and amphibians) lost their lives and 11 million hectares of bush, forest and parks incinerated.

Were these natural weather patterns, documented and scientifically proven cycles? Maybe, at first - then absolutely no, nothing about 2020 has been normal cycles. This realisation seeped in to even the most cynical of climate change scepticism. No longer a maybe but a certainty.

So what has climate change now we have acknowledged it and accepted there is an issue got to do with a pandemic?

Overpopulation + Unsustainable use of resources = Ecosystem disequilibrium

"Sustainable development is the organizing principle for meeting human development goals while simultaneously sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services based upon which the economy and society depend. The desired result is a state of society where living conditions and resources are used to continue to meet human needs without undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system. Sustainable development can be defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Human overpopulation is nothing new, historically we have seen a steady pattern of repetition and repercussions.

"Overpopulation can result from an increase in births, a decline in mortality rates, an increase in immigration, or an unsustainable biome and depletion of resources."

Overpopulation means too many people for the environment to sustain, effecting food, drinking water, the air we breathe and risking animal-borne diseases.

During the 12th century, animals were separating from people's houses. Why? 900 years ago people worked out that non-domesticated wild animals carry disease that makes humans sick and is potentially life-threatening.

Take a look at your own diet. Are you choosing a sustainable diet? Next trip to the grocery store is a good time to start. Download this a free checklist to help you decide what works from you.

With global pollution diminishing all over the planet - less traffic, fewer flights, less industry. "It's hardly a sustainable way to reduce emissions," said Li Shuo, senior climate and energy policy officer at Greenpeace. 

The question then is what next... 

Image: Puria Berenji

So what is a solution? Fewer people or living sustainability. 

If humanity, that is every individual, industry and government does not choose by default they are choosing the eradication of humanity. Pandemics are the result of unsustainable living, waste, emissions and the overuse of resources which are not sustainable. This includes the meat industry. 

Sustainable development

The future requires a society where living conditions and resources are used to continue to meet human needs without undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system.

Individual Sustainability

Each and every individual must embody the mindset that their carbon footprint is significant. Every particle of waste, their cations, their habits, purchasing their political stance and their inner and outer being. All these must unite to form a common goal - sustainable living.

Industry and Government Sustainability

Pressure needs to start with you! 

The more we unite as individuals we put pressure on industry and governments to create, implement and maintain sustainable development infrastructures. Economic development, social development and environmental protection will mean we have a future. It's life and death. Feel like living in lockdown the rest of your life?

Despite the air pollution reduction, there is a reason for thought that on the other side of the current pandemic is a return to previous ways. Greener ways involve change and arent generally the most financially economic ones.

What can you do?

Pandemics generally arise from our seeming unwillingness to respect the interdependence between ourselves, other animal species and the natural world more generally.

Zoonotic diseases (animals to humans) include includes HIV, Ebola, Zika, Hendra, SARS, MERS and bird flu.

Are you willing to continue to risk animal-borne diseases?

Reset daily habits

Your Diet - Consider what you eat, how it is produced and the source. That is resources used, emissions, how far it has to travel and what possible contamination could have accorded. For meat-eaters: start with a 5 out of 7 day flexitarian diet, that is if you choose to eat meat only do so, 2 days a week. Choose lesser portions and sustainability farmed source. You might discover you don't need it at all. A diet of meat only twice a week has the strength to decease greenhouse emission by 7%.

Flexitarian diet information:  The Flexitarian Diet: A Detailed Beginner's Guide

They might sound unrelated, but pandemics crisis and the climate and biodiversity crises are deeply connected to pandemics. 

What has the ecological supply chain got to do with a pandemic? A recent comment from a friend who had considered the pandemic unrelated to global neglect of the earth shocked me. So I thought I would clear this up in case anyone else had no connected to dots.

Why a pandemic has everything to do with a lack of sustainability

1. Overpopulation

2. Contaminating the earth

3. Contaminating the water

4. Contaminating the air

= Risking animal-borne diseases

Climate change makes us vulnerable, choosing to live sustainably is choosing to live! 

XO

Stay safe friends.