Even though climate change did not cause the emergence of COVID-19 they said it could indirectly make the effects of a current or future pandemic worse.
Habitat destruction like deforestation and agricultural development on wildland are increasingly forcing disease-carrying wild animals closer to humans, allowing new strains of infectious diseases to thrive.Institute said only about 15 per cent of the world’s forests, which are key to maintaining biodiversity, remain intact after degradation from logging, fires and agricultural expansion. Millions of animal and plant species currently face extinction because of habitat destruction.
Research has found that COVID-19 likely originated in a horseshoe bat and was then transmitted through another animal. Scott Weaver, director of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity at the University of Texas, said deforestation will increase the risk of many mosquito-borne viruses in areas like the tropics, Latin America and South-east Asia.warmer temperatures will increase the spread of viruses