Covid-19 was no surprise. After the 2003 outbreak of SARS and the 2012 outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), it was only a m...
Covid-19 was no surprise. After the 2003 outbreak of SARS and the 2012 outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), it was only a matter of time before another lethal coronavirus stung us.
Why were we unprepared?
Let me rephrase that question: Why did we let it happen again?
We failed to prevent it because we failed to recognise a truth that stares us in the face.
It would be more correct to say we refused to recognise it.
Here is a litany of the landscape of this very inconvenient truth: yellow fever, zika fever, dengue, chikungunya, ebola, SARS, Nipah virus, Kyasanur Forest disease, MERS, rabies, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, sleeping sickness, hantavirus-caused diseases, Japanese encephalitis, malaria and counting ...
Though these diseases are very different, their landscape of origin is the same. And it is a shockingly familiar one, no matter where you live.
It is a landscape without trees.
All these diseases emerged – or re-emerged, more virulent and dangerous – as a result of human encroachment on forests. Historically, we might trace them to tropical rainforests, but right now we must look closer to home. Because the forest was, till very recently, right here somewhere, in and about your housing colony, around that gated high-rise...
