The interrelationships between the COVID pandemic and the earth systems.

Pallob Kanti Paul, Xiangjun Chen, En-Chi Lee, Ryan Liu, Khagendra Kumar Sharma

Introduction

What is COVID-19 ?

• A disease carried by a recently discovered species of corona- virus that emerged in late 2019
• Already have severe impact on the world.

The poster will be investigating the interrelationship between COVID-19 and Earth systems.

The interconnection of humans and Earth systems will be illustrated.

Study Area

How Earth system interactions caused COVID-19 pandemic ?

• Infection route of COVID-19.
• Relationship between Earth system and disease transmission.

Interrelationship between COVID -19 and Earth systems

• Interaction between the various Earth systems and their feedback reaction on COVID-19.
• Discussing the short and long term effects of COVID-19 to Earth systems.

Fig.1. The diagram above outlines some of the interactions between the various earth systems and COVID-19 (N. Diffenbaugh et al, 2020)

How did the earth system reactions cause� COVID-19 pandemic ?

Process of COVID-19 transmission

Origin (argued) → animal (intermediate host) → human ↔ human

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Transmission among animals and human

• Changes in biosphere highly affect outbreaks of infectious diseases.
• Human activities cause climate change and disrupt biosphere.

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Transmission among humans

• High transmission rate

Consequence of urbanisation

• Influence of climate

Varies among diseases, with complicated mechanisms

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Infection route of COVID-19

Interrelation of COVID-19 and Atmosphere, Anthrosphere, Biosphere, Hydrosphere and Geosphere

Fast interactions

With reaction time shorter a year, so the effects are already presented:

Interrelation of COVID-19 and Atmosphere, Anthrosphere, Biosphere, Hydrosphere and Geosphere

Effect of COVID on Earth system

Short Term Effects

Reduced CO₂ emission

• Overall rate of sheltering increased across the world
• Reduction of CO₂ emission by ~7% in 2020 (Figure 2 & 3)
• Could decrease rate of ocean acidification (Diffenbaugh et al., 2020).

Reduced atmospheric aerosol

• Less aerosol produced by industry and aviation
• Reduced amount of sunlight reaching surface (Henderson, 2020)
• Affects atmospheric patterns

Reduced NO₂ emission

• Caused by lessened industrial output (Figure 4).
• Result in less photochemical smog
• Affects the biosphere and atmosphere

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Long Term Effects

Increased Poverty

• Lessened tourism and human movement affect certain regions
• May affect income and decrease food security (Diffenbaugh et al, 2020).
• May cause community to resort to less sustainable methods to survive (poaching etc.)

Changes in legislature:

• COVID-19 may encourage changes in city design to favour less automobile (Gorris et al., 2021).
• COVID-19 also caused a lack of regulation in areas of conservation.

Uncertainties

• Overall, long term effect of COVID-19 is uncertain.
• Event is both recent and unprecedented.

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Fig.2. The graph above displays the global and regional CO₂ emission in 2020 (N. Diffenbaugh et al, 2020)

Fig.3. The table above displays the global and regional CO₂ emission in 2020 cumulatively (N. Diffenbaugh et al, 2020)

Fig.4. The map above displays the overall reduction in NO₂ emission in the most industrialised of the world. (N. Diffenbaugh et al, 2020)

Conclusions

• COVID-19 fully illustrates the complex interactions between humans and earth systems.
• The pandemic is shown to have real effects on the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere. Therefore the one health approach is important.
• The truly illustrates how we are within the anthropocene.

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References

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