{"id":21172,"date":"2020-04-08T22:25:07","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T22:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/21172\/air-pollution-and-climate-change-impacting-the-increase-of-covid-19-deaths"},"modified":"2020-04-17T16:28:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T16:28:38","slug":"air-pollution-and-climate-change-impacting-the-increase-of-covid-19-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/21172\/air-pollution-and-climate-change-impacting-the-increase-of-covid-19-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Pollution and Climate Change Impacting the Increase of COVID-19 Deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have been warning us that the way we are living will deal deadly blows to our future, even\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2019\/dec\/30\/environment-2050-flooded-cities-forced-migration-amazon-turning-savannah\">as soon as 2050<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Pollution and climate change have been looming over us. Especially since we have developed more and more ways to burn as many fossil fuels as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now, COVID-19 has taken center stage\u00a0when it comes to global attention. But the unexpected side effects of the deadly and contagious virus have created a silver lining in terms of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/here-s-what-covid-19-is-doing-to-our-pollution-levels\">well-being of the planet<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There is proof that the improvements in air pollution is saving lives by cleaning the air.<\/p>\n<p>It is also preventing the increase of deaths related to COVID-19, as evidence suggests that air pollution and climate change can actually <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2020\/mar\/17\/air-pollution-likely-to-increase-coronavirus-death-rate-warn-experts\">impact the death rate<\/a> of the virus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>How Pollution and Climate Change Increase COVID-19 Deaths &amp; Spread<\/h2>\n<p>Air pollution has many negative effects on people, including lung and heart damage.<\/p>\n<p>This means that millions can contract some kind of underlying health damage from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/ng-interactive\/2019\/may\/17\/air-pollution-may-be-damaging-every-organ-and-cell-in-the-body-finds-global-review\">breathing dirty air.<\/a>\u00a0The concealed damage done can leave individuals susceptible to respiratory infection.<\/p>\n<p>Air pollution alone causes<a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/health-topics\/air-pollution#tab=tab_1\">\u00a07 million deaths worldwide<\/a>\u00a0due to the number of pollutants that people inhale.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As we now know, one of the main <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/q-a-detail\/q-a-coronaviruses#:~:text=symptoms\">symptoms of coronavirus<\/a> is a dry cough and shortness of breath in severe cases. Developments in research have brought to light the fact that those with respiratory difficulties are at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-health-coronavirus-breathing\/patients-with-breathing-lung-problems-at-highest-risk-with-covid-19-study-idUSKBN2153ED\">a much higher risk<\/a> for\u00a0developing severe cases of COVID-19 if contracted.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The way that pathogens travel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2020\/mar\/18\/tip-of-the-iceberg-is-our-destruction-of-nature-responsible-for-covid-19-aoe\">through the wet market<\/a> industry has also affected the spread of disease in the past. It is an industry that heavily impacts the world.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to the destruction of biodiversity, wet markets have a large role to play. When the biodiversity in an ecosystem is interrupted, it provides a new environment and new conditions.<\/p>\n<p>These are the conditions in which new viruses and diseases can thrive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>All of a sudden, <a href=\"https:\/\/cadehildreth.com\/greta-thunberg-quotes\/\">some Greta Thunberg quotes<\/a>\u00a0start to become more sobering. It&#8217;s as if we should have been listening to her warnings all along.<\/p>\n<p>Air pollution and climate change deaths have gone under the radar because we are failing to connect the dots when it comes to the environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>So, What Now?\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>The way that we have been treating the Earth has been inappropriate.<\/p>\n<p>How can we realize\u00a0that it has also contributed to the increased death rate of a virus taking the world by storm?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Well, taken from Greta Thunberg herself,\u00a0&#8220;Right here, right now, is where we draw the line.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Observing the way that Italy and China&#8217;s distinct and drastic measures have affected their environmental livelihood is a great encouragement for us.<\/p>\n<p>We can embrace doing the same.<\/p>\n<p>Italy&#8217;s canals are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicfm.com\/music-news\/coronavirus\/venice-canals-clear-dolphins-swim-italy-lockdown\/\">running clearer water<\/a> that some residents have never seen before. China&#8217;s air pollution <a href=\"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2020\/03\/16\/coronavirus-chinas-economic-slowdown-curbs-deadly-air-pollution\/\">has dramatically decreased<\/a>, saving up to one million people this year alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We can fight pollution and climate change and coronavirus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Limiting the amount that we contribute to carbon emissions as much as possible and as soon as possible makes a difference.\u00a0It is one of the primary ways to make a better impact on decreasing air pollution, saving lives, and working towards a better planet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have been warning us that the way we are living will deal deadly blows to our future, even\u00a0as soon as 2050. Pollution and climate change have been looming over&hellip; <span class=\"read-more-span\"><a href=\"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/21172\/air-pollution-and-climate-change-impacting-the-increase-of-covid-19-deaths\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Air Pollution and Climate Change Impacting the Increase of COVID-19 Deaths&#8221;<\/span> <span class=\"genericon genericon-next\"><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21218,"href":"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21172\/revisions\/21218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upgifs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}