Pandemics, climate change, and the eye
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EDITORIAL
Pandemics, climate change, and the eye Sophia El Hamichi 1 & Aaron Gold 1 & Timothy G. Murray 1 & Veronica Kon Graversen 1,2 Received: 18 June 2020 / Revised: 8 September 2020 / Accepted: 17 September 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Introduction Global climate change is primarily a sequel of human’s impact on the planet. More than 150 years ago, Marsh recognized and praised the benefits of the interaction between man and nature. However, he was also the first to severely criticize their relationship, suggesting that further abuse by humans could result in the extinction of the species. This exploitation of Earth’s resources led Nobel Prize laureate Paul Crutzen to coin a new term: “Anthropocene” or “The Age of Man” [1]. Humanity’s disruptive behavior could have started with the Industrial Revolution in the mid-eighteenth century and has continued for the past three centuries. In 1997, Vitousek et al. estimated that 39–50% of the world’s land surface has been transformed or degraded by human activity [2]. Furthermore, a persistent increase in levels of fossil-fuels has released abundant greenhouse gases (GHG), contributing to a global crisis of air pollution. The energy imbalance as a result of pollution induces accumulation of heat with the subsequent warming of the planet. In fact, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calculated that the Earth will warm by 1.5 °C during this century [3], causing a massive climate-induced change in the migration pattern of wildlife animals, bringing them into greater contact with humans. Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our vulnerability. In a couple of weeks, it brought normal life to an almost complete halt. The primary aim of this review is to describe the impact of environment on the spread of zoonoses and how climate can influence the development of eye diseases. Some of the
This article is part of the topical collection on Perspectives on COVID-19 * Veronica Kon Graversen [email protected] 1
Murray Ocular Oncology and Retina, Miami, FL, USA
2
Retina Health Center, 1567 Hayley Lane, Fort Myers, FL 33907, USA
possible outcomes from COVID-19 will also be delineated, respectively.
Pandemics and climate change The climate system is interactive and evolves in time under the influence of several factors:
Little Ice Age Little Ice Age is a period between 1300 and 1850 that is known for its colder temperatures, with an average drop of 0.5 °C. Although most of the cooling may have been caused by a decrease in sunspot activity or a surge in volcanic eruptions, evidence suggests that it could be to some extent manmade [4]. A vicious cycle had started: Several plagues had claimed the lives of millions, leaving extensive land to reforest, lowering the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) with a subsequent decrease in temperature. On a global scale, extreme climate with freezing conditions increased harvest failures, famine, and malnutrition, resulting in prominent outbreaks of new and old epidemics [5].
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