AfricaPress-Tanzania: ALTHOUGH the world is still wrestling with the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, Tanzania and several other countries experience a downward trend of infection, thanks to workable approaches.
However, other countries are still battling with the pandemic as they keep recording new cases and deaths as days pass by.
Certainly, Covid-19 has demonstrated to us that an emergency doesn’t have a one-for-all mitigation response approach, but depends on the pervasiveness of the outbreak or disaster and the local context, thus an aphorism, ‘think globally, but act locally’.
All countries across the world have learned and are still learning what to do first to mitigate the effects of an emergency such as a pandemic or a disaster.
For instance, when the deadly disease started plaguing China, Italy and other countries, there was a call for global solidarity–that’s working together and supporting each other morally and materially to overcome it.
This is because Covid-19 is just one of the pandemics and not the last one. We still have many pandemics to battle with given the fact of climate change.
Speaking on this, Pope Francis, said: “There is a Spanish expression which says God always forgives, we sometimes forgive, but nature never forgives.”
The Pope said this as he related the deadly disease to the nature’s way of responding to environmental degradation, wildfires and pollution.
In a new study published in the May 29, 2020 issue of Science magazine, researchers show how rising temperatures and carbon dioxide have been altering the world’s forests.
They too attribute the causes of these alterations to the frequency and severity of disturbances such as wildfires, droughts, windstorm damage and other natural calamities.
The study suggests further that there is mounting evidence that climate change is accelerating tree mortality, increasingly pushing the world’s forests towards being both younger and shorter trees.
What we can conclude from this study is that there is the likelihood for the world to experience more pandemics and disasters due to the frequency and severity of disturbances and all these have adverse effects on humans, animals, trees, other living organisms and the environment in general.
So, what we must do is that the coronavirus pandemic shouldn’t make us forget the preparedness of outbreaks, but push us to engage more in effective emergency mitigation responses.
What has helped us to fight against the pandemic and minimise its effects should act as an impetus for dealing with future disasters and pandemics without losing the hope of overcoming them.
So, let’s keep the fire burning!
