Pandemics and the future of human-landscape interactions.

ABSTRACT: Pandemics have accelerated in frequency in recent decades, with COVID-19 the latest to join the list. Emerging in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, the virus has spread quickly through the world, affecting billions of people through quarantine, and at the same time claiming more than 800,000 lives worldwide. While early reflections from the academic community have tended to target the microbiology, medicine, and animal science communities, this article articulates a viewpoint from a perspective of human interactions with Earth systems. We highlight the link between rising pandemics and accelerating global human impacts on Earth, thereby suggesting that pandemics may be an emerging element of the "Anthropocene." Examples from Denver, Colorado, USA, show how policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemi

SUBMITTER: Chin A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7451098 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature