According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wildfire smoke can irritate your lungs, cause inflammation, affect your immune system and make you more prone to lung infections, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Reports indicate UNC researchers were potentially exposed to lab-created coronaviruses in several incidents since 2015. These incidents highlight the risks even in the most secure and respected research facilities.
While it's critical that we devote our scientific ingenuity to beating back the current pandemic, we must also address our broken relationship with nature in a concerted effort to prevent similar outbreaks in the future.
We know pandemics come from interactions between humans and wildlife. Nature-based pandemic prevention measures could protect us in the future, as long as we fund them adequately.
The number of "zoonotic" epidemics is rising, with the root cause being the destruction of nature by humans and the growing demand for meat, according to the authors of a UN report.
DNA tests show an increase in the number of animals with positive tests for some coronaviruses from the time they are trapped until they arrive on someone’s dinner plate.
Pandemics such as coronavirus are the result of humanity's destruction of nature, according to leaders at the UN, WHO and WWF International, and the world has been ignoring this stark reality for decades.
Pandemics such as coronavirus are the result of humanity's destruction of nature, according to leaders at the UN, WHO and WWF International, and the world has been ignoring this stark reality for decades.
Indonesia’s wildlife markets are “like a cafeteria for animal pathogens,” but they have resisted efforts to close even as China has shut its own markets over coronavirus fears.
62 oil and gas companies from around the world signed on to a UN-led partnership aimed at bolstering monitoring and reductions of the potent climate-warming gas.
"Before decisions are made we need to practice what we preach when we say that we stand for justice and equity. In any decision-making process, youth need to be involved from the get-go."
