Warning: the author is going to give a talk about the coronavirus situation in Russia and in the world. 

Please, keep yourself and your family safe. 

 You're holding a phone. On the  screen there’re  news about the increasing number of infected people. The school is closed, and the chat rooms are full of messages. "I wish it will be over soon," you’re probably thinking, waiting and hoping that the problem will not affect you personally and your family and friends. Let it  be so – the government is doing everything possible to stop the spread of the virus. That's how the life of a modern Russian teenager lokks like now. 

 But what if I say that the problem of the coronavirus and the global epidemic threat  is broader than you think? The number of cases has already exceeded the mark of 390 thousand people around the world. But that's not what I'm talking about. A pandemic is a combination of many factors, accidents, global environmental problems are standing behind them.

The temperature of the globe is constantly increasing due to global warming. Although there is no direct research suggesting that an increase in average temperature and the spread of coronavirus are linked, one thing is clear: the virus outbreak could have been caused by the same causes as warming.

The modern world is critically interconnected: tourism, information, and economic ties have enveloped the countries as a result of globalization. It is blamed by many organizations for the fact that the coronavirus has  spread with international flights (article "How Coronavirus and Climate Change Show the Limits of Globalization" - Yessenia Funes). Statistics show that air travel accounts for a quarter of global carbon dioxide emissions every year – 0.6 billion tons out of 2.2 billion tons.  per year in Russia. (Bulletin on current trends in the Russian economy; 52 August 2019-Ecology and economy: dynamics of pollution of the country's atmosphere in the run-up to the ratification of the Paris agreement). The temperature of the planet is rising, which makes the world more hospitable to viruses and bacteria, while reducing human resistance to them: adapted to high temperatures, organisms do not respond to the immune reactions of increasing human body temperature as acutely as before. Also, the first case of COVI-2019 infection was registered on December 31, 2019 in Wuhan, China. It got into the human body from a carrier-a bat. The body temperature of bats can reach 40 C°. The human body temperature is normally 36.6 C°, in the case of infections or other hazards, the body increases it to 39-40° One of the most important and powerful tools of the body in its fight against the danger of viruses is useless.

In the TED presentation, Alanna Shaikh, an expert in the field of global health system, gave a talk  about the nature of coronavirus:

 "Coronaviruses are zoonotic, - Shaikh says, - which means they transmit the prom animals to people. Some coronaviruses, like COVID-2019, also transmit from person to person.  Zoonotic illnesses are really hard to ger rid of, because they have the animal reservoir.... COVID-2019 is most probably passed to person at a wild animal market in Wuhan, China. This is not the last major outbreak we're going to see. It's a result of how we are, as human beings, are interacting with our planet. Part of that is the climate change and the way a warning climate makes the worlds more hospitable to viruses and bacteria.  But it's also about the way we're pushing into the last wild species on our planet»

Shaikh talks about how we burn and cut down forests for pastures, and about draining swamps, and much more – all these schemes are considered as ways of destroying natural habitats. They are based on the grossest intrusion into wild, untouched ecosystems. Hunting animals to extinction in different regions of the planet is a source of contact between humans and wild animals.  People are often not prepared to face the organisms and threats that they contain biologically due to long isolation. In addition, the subsequent destruction of natural ecosystems entails the migration of wild species to areas close to humans.

The repercussions of "consumer" attitudes to nature go far ahead: global warming puts hundreds of thousands of species on the verge of extinction, affects the health of marine organisms, etc. Invasion and hunting exacerbate the situation. No one could have predicted that the consequences of our unwise actions will be revealed in 2019, and in 2020 the whole world will be covered by the idea of how to live next to COVID-2019.

And I encourage everyone to think – if not now, when? When will the humanity have a chance to change the approach  to nature?..

P.S. I hope nobody was offended with my article, as the situation in the world get worse so the theme may be personally sad for someone. If I made you uncomfortable and touched your situation, I'm sorry. Let me know. 

credits: Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images