COVID-19 and the environment: links, impacts and lessons learned
date: 15/09/2022
Since early 2020, the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), known as COVID-19 (first detected at the end of 2019), has hit societies worldwide, unsparingly, causing massive impacts on people’s lives: our health, activities, livelihoods, societies and economies.
While the pandemic has been progressing, the world has simultaneously been undergoing other existing environmental crises: those of biodiversity loss, loss of environmental health and rapid climate changes, associated with resource use, land-use changes and ongoing emission of carbon into the atmosphere.
This research brings together some of the latest scientific findings to explore the links between COVID-10 and these environmental issues, including:
- Land-use change
- Agriculture
- Wildlife trade and infectious disease risk
- Climate change and increased disease risk
The Future Brief also explores the impacts caused to the environment due to the spread of COVID-19 and lessons learnt for future pandemics.
Click here to read the Future Brief.