Our Health and the Environment
In these changing and challenging times as we all work to “bend the curve” of the Covid-19 crisis by staying isolated, the importance of open spaces and places to experience nature has become clear. Places like Bolsa Chica are even more important to the communities they serve, and they will always be important to the betterment of our world. These places not only provide space to get out of our houses, stretch our legs, break from our worries, and take in nature’s beauty, but they are places that help maintain Earth’s critical biodiversity, help clean our water and air, and fight climate change. They remind us of the importance of a healthy planet to live on.
The Covid-19 outbreak highlights the crossroads of our health and the health of our environment. Suburban sprawl, clear-cutting forest for farming and mining, industrial level farming – the list of how we affect our environment in negative ways is long, and the effects are bad for us and for nature. Air pollution and climate change affect how we breathe and can cause serious illness – or make regular illnesses more deadly. Encroachment into more wild areas forces more contact between wildlife and humans, with disastrous consequences for both. The health of the natural world and the health of humans are inseparable.
But, this crisis also shows that we can come together to help make things better. Once this crisis is past, we still face the crisis of our climate and the destruction of our natural areas. Perhaps, as we see the connections of disease and the environment, more of us will come together to heal our world.
Want to read more: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/c-change/news/
