Ifran Mohamed
Soil, an abundant resource in our planet, serves as the bedrock that supports ecosystems and habitats worldwide while also subsidizing the fluctuation of natural vegetation. However, as our global population exponentially increases at a worrisome rate, the necessity for food is aggravating like never before, requiring that more land be allotted for farming. As a result, our means of agriculture have transitioned from natural growth to artificial growth, where fertilizers and other chemicals are being used to speed up the process of production. Furthermore, human practices such as deforestation, overgrazing of pastures, and the use of agrochemicals are commonly used to quench the paramounting threat of food shortage. As beneficial these actions may be, they are fueling yet another problem: soil erosion and its negative effects.
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Riya Jariwala
As we traverse pandemic times and feel the need to return to normalcy, scientists warn that more pandemics like the ongoing coronavirus will occur more frequently due to habitat destruction and deforestation. Eliminating natural environments of different species won’t make the species themselves disappear. As University of Montpellier infectious diseases researcher Roger Frutos puts it, “We instead create a patchwork, a mosaic of their environment that’s closer to ours, with houses that attract insects or sheds where bats can rest and find shelter.” And with that comes the spread of more infectious diseases, which is evident from the three pandemics that have occurred since 2002: SARS, Ebola, and currently SARS-CoV-2. All three of these viruses have jumped from wild animals to humans, and the probability of the spread of similar infectious diseases will only continue if we don’t reassess how our land conversion behaviors. |
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