Experts have been aware and addressing the significant impacts climate change is having on global health issues, speaking about anticipated spikes in incidents and locations for outbreaks of malaria, dengue fever, and cholera, as well as a longer season and geographic expansion exacerbating the transmission of vector born diseases. Now they are beginning to highlight the connections between massive deforstation in West African countries and this historic Ebola epidemic.
As reports filter out of Sierra Leone detail that Ebola is currently infecting five new people every hour, epidemiologists point to the role of deforestation in West Africa as a significant contributor to the unprecedented magnitude of this most recent outbreak, which WHO reports has claimed close to 3500 lives.
Climate change in Western Africa is responsible for increased droughts, warmer temperatures, irregular rainfall patterns, and landslides, all of which have fractured the precious and delicate biodiversity of the Upper Guinean forest, causing a 'spillover' between species; As people move deeper into the rainforests for logging, mining and agriculture, animals are moving out, most particularly bats, primary carriers of the Ebola virus. Additionally, more people in the forests are relying on bushmeat for sustenace, causing species-to-species 'spillover' at a significantly expanded rate than previously experienced.
What is becoming clearer, however, is that human activity is playing a major role in the initial outbreaks of these zoonotic diseases—those that jump between animal and human—like Ebola. Humans are venturing farther and farther into forests, putting more and more pressure on local ecosystems through small-scale gold and diamond mining, deforestation, and conflict. In remote West Africa, where human populations meet the forests, people are increasingly coming into contact with animals, and that, combined with traditional hunting practices, is driving up the risk of a "spillover" occurring, where Ebola can leap across species.
"I think there are lots of instances of human activities driving spillovers and outbreaks," says Dr. Jonathan Epstein, a veterinary epidemiologist and Ebola expert with EcoHealth Alliance, an international organization of scientists that studies biodiversity and conservation. "While some of these things may be cultural traditions that have persisted for a long time," he says, "some of them are activities that are relatively newer, but intensifying." We Are Making Ebola Outbreaks Worse by Cutting Down Forests, Mother Jones, July 2014.
During the September 23 UN Climate Summit, Liberia became the
first nation to pledge its intention to combat climate change by achieving zero net deforestation by 2020. This is a monumental announcement, as nearly 3/4 of the Upper Guinean forest are within Liberia's borders and represents a huge 'carbon sink." It also potentially serves as a mechanism to stymie the spread of infectious diseases, such as Ebola.
Liberia's pledge is supported by a $150million donation from Norway and is the initial tranche in a global campaign discussed during the New York Declaration on Forests.
Nigel Sizer, Global Director, Forests Program, World Resources Institute, noted just how significant a role deforestation will play in abating global warming.
Our research shows that achieving zero net deforestation by 2030 could result in more emissions reductions than removing every car, bus, and plane from the United States, China, and India combined. Similarly, achieving the Declaration’s goal of restoring an area of degraded land greater than the size of India by 2030 would generate $170 billion per year in benefits from watershed protection, improved crop yields, and forest products, not to mention bringing enormous emissions reductions. (From: STATEMENT: WRI Reacts to Major Announcements on Cities, Forests, and Carbon Pricing at UN Climate Summit
While meeting this pledge is expected to be difficult due to an insufficient infrastructure and incentive to impede illegal logging, it does reverse many of the policies of Liberia’s president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, which would have caused 58% deforestation as rich forest land was slated to be divided among logging, industrial agriculture and mining companies.
According to numerous studies, destruction of tropical forests is responsible for about 20% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
Bronson Griscom, Director of Forest Carbon Science, opines that forests are rapidly emerging as the global climate superpower. Citing a study which finds that the earth's surface currently houses "more crops, pasture, plantations, and strip malls than there are native forests (28%) and other natural ecosystems (19%) (Hooke et. al. 2012)," Griscom determines that forests contribute billions of dollars towards climate change mitigation.
1) Forests store double the amount of carbon that sits in the atmosphere. At the very least we’d better hold on to the remaining forests;
2) Forests already play an important role in mitigating climate change, with a net sequestration of four billion tons of CO2 per year, which seems to be growing (Ballantyne et. al. 2012) despite large emissions from forest destruction in the tropics (Figure 1, Pan et. al. 2011).
3) Forests are a large part of the solution to climate change. Forests can provide about 20-30% of global climate mitigation under least-cost scenarios (UNEP 2012, Sohngen & Mendelsohn, 2003).
In an EcoInternet article published Wednesday
Ebola a Symptom of Ecological and Social Collapse, Political Ecologist Dr. Glenn Barry suggests the Ebola epidemic is the result of a “broad-based ecological and social collapse including rainforest loss, over-population, poverty and war."
The single greatest truth underlying the Ebola tragedy is that humanity is systematically dismantling the ecosystems that make Earth habitable. In particular, the potential for Ebola outbreaks and threats from other emergent diseases is made worse by cutting down forests [1]. Exponentially growing human populations and consumption – be it subsistence agriculture or mining for luxury consumer items – are pushing deeper into African old-growth forests where Ebola circulated before spillover into humans.
Poverty stricken communities in West Africa are increasingly desperate, and are eating infected “bushmeat” such as bats and gorilla, bringing them into contact with infected wildlife blood. Increasingly fragmented forests, further diminished by climate change, are forcing bats to find other places to live that are often amongst human communities.
International disease ecologists in 2012 published a study in Science
Climate Change and Infectious Diseases: From Evidence to a Predictive Framework focusing on the need for immediate action to address the association between global warming and an increase in global health crises.
"We need to transcend simple arguments about which is more important — climate change or socioeconomics — and ask just how much harder will it be to control diseases as the climate warms?" said coauthor Richard Ostfeld of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. "Will it be possible at all in developing countries?"
How You Can Help....
Partners in Health - Volunteer Opportunities (and donations)
“The Ebola crisis is a reflection of long-standing and growing inequalities of access to basic health care. Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone do not have the staff, stuff, and systems required to halt the outbreak on their own,” wrote PIH Co-founders Drs. Paul Farmer and Jim Yong Kim in a recent op-ed. "It would be scandalous to let this crisis escalate further when we have the knowledge, tools, and resources to stop it."
Experienced clinical and non-clinical health sector workers interested in staffing the ETUs and supporting existing community-based work are welcome to apply here.
Donations:
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is on the frontlines in Western Africa with the disease and helped to contain numerous life-threatening epidemics.
Facts
Ebola first appeared in 1976 in simultaneous outbreaks in Nzara, Sudan, and in Yambuku, DRC
The latter was in a village situated near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name
Fruit bats are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus
The case-fatality rate varies from 25 to 90 percent, depending on the strain
Oxfam
Joining forces with health authorities, Oxfam is providing gloves, masks, overalls, boots, goggles, and other gear to teams carrying out vital public health work. And – through radio, print, and training door-to-door messengers – we are helping community members understand how they can protect their families from the deadly epidemic