Fast fashion and environmental destruction exacerbate pandemic risks

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New research has revealed that climate change, environmental degradation and human activity are creating a perfect storm for more deadly pandemics like COVID-19. Scientists from the University of Western Australia (UWA) say COVID-19 has highlighted the critical need to reduce human impacts on the environment to prevent further pandemics. Dr Kirsten Martinus, the  study’s lead author, said climate change and associated severe weather events were altering habitat. ‘So, where a habitat may have had ample food for an ecosystem, suddenly you get a change, and the food or the ecosystem actually changes itself and you get animals coming in contact with each other that previously were not in contact with each other. And from that you get novel diseases occurring’.