The relationship between rising temperatures and increasing spread of viruses has been much researched. The American Society of Microbiology released a report on this in 2010 citing conditions for pandemics

The Coronavirus, with its epicentre in Wuhan, China, is wreaking havoc and creating an immense fear psychosis around the world. In China alone, the virus has infected over 24,391 people and has reportedly caused over 492 deaths according to official estimates.

However, the actual number is believed to be much higher. The alarming speed at which the virus is spreading caused Chinese President Xi Jinping to remark that the nation was fighting a demon. The virus has led many nations to evacuate their citizens from China. The Chinese authorities have deployed emergency measures to contain the spread of the virus by imposing strict travel restrictions and putting certain geographical locations under lockdown, with over 50 million people quarantined.

The spread of lethal viruses has become the new face of climate change and is taking an unimaginable toll on human life even as the international medical community, scientists and disease experts scramble to find a vaccine and contain the coronavirus. Climate change-enabled rise in temperatures has caused the spike in humidity levels that in turn have created a favourable environment for the viruses of the most virulent kind to breed and multiply.  The relationship between rising temperatures and increasing spread of viruses has been  much researched. The American Society of Microbiology released a report way back in 2010 regarding the relation between the two and how high temperatures play a perfect host to pandemics.

In the background of this virus outbreak, the lack of progress at the recent COP 25 looks like a lost opportunity, as the international environmental community with a great opportunity at hand could not come up with any major development agenda to fight climate change.

Had the world leaders and the environmental community cobbled together an actionable plan that included containment of those precipitating factors that trigger epidemics such as these, the world would have already had a plan in hand to deal with the present crisis.

Be it the SARS virus that impacted China 17 years ago and infected nearly 8,000 people or the Zika virus outbreak in 2016, the role of climate change has always been centric as the enabler of fast-spreading viruses. However, there are other aspects also. For instance, there is an urgent need to manage the triangular relationship between humans, the environment and animals. The inept handling of any one aspect of this can cause a cascading impact on the well-being of all three.

The United States (US) took a risk of sorts when the Trump Administration closed down the Predict Programme that had the research mandate to test animals for dangerous pathogens that could cross over to human beings. The current coronavirus could be an example where the virus strain is in fact believed to have evolved from bat species.

The political leadership, therefore, plays a very important role in either limiting the evolution and subsequent spread of the virus or exposing the human community to the risks of virus by shutting down ongoing research facilities engaged in studying them, as done by the Trump Administration.

The human community has for ages been engaged in a never-ending struggle with diseases and maladies which have challenged and inspired the scientific community to come out with superior medication and vaccines. But the intensity and speed of the virus is now approaching dangerous levels giving lesser and lesser time to the scientific and medical community to respond with an antidote.

As a result of this time lag, precious lives are being lost at an alarming speed. China needs to up its research and development powers and ensure that clear lines are drawn between animal and human interactions so that a virus highway of sorts is not opened between the two.

India, thankfully has remained largely out of the clutches of this present pandemic but the reporting of  disease-infected victims is getting uncomfortably closer to home. India must set up a research protocol and a prevention programme and insulate itself against the disease. But more importantly, the global community must unite and ensure that climate change is controlled drastically and does not play host to the virulent viruses of the future.

(The writer is an environmental journalist)