Articles/Letters Fast fashion and environmental destruction exacerbate pandemic risks Philippa Clark
be transferred to humans unless human ecological disruption is addressed. Some of the key human activities causing increased human contact with wildlife, and thereby diseases to spread, are land use change, forestry, factory farming, and the wildlife trade.
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ew research has revealed that climate change, environmental degradation and human activity are creating a perfect storm for more deadly pandemics like COVID-19. Scientists from the University of Western Australia (UWA) say COVID-19 has highlighted the critical need to reduce human impacts on the environment to prevent further pandemics. Dr Natasha Pauli from UWA said deforestation and land degradation meant humans and various host species were in closer contact with one another. ‘This will make the outbreak of emerging infectious diseases more frequent, and more dangerous to humans’, Dr Pauli said.
Increasing humananimal contact ‘A virus jumping between species may remain localised, and not emerge as a full pandemic. However, our actions – combined with climate change – are creating conditions where greater
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The Echo ran a story (26 February, 2018) when Wawan Prahara died, who was a longtime icon of the drumming culture in Byron Bay. He told me it had been occurring in Byron for what is now at least 30 years. Other long-term residents attested to that, including Harsha Prabhu, sadly also no longer living in Byron, though his case was due to paucity of rentals and their skyrocketing cost. The reason the drumming has migrated to Bruns is that Byron Bay has ceased to be a place of alternative culture, becoming instead a place primarily for the rich and tourists. So, ‘the issue’ resists a one-sided analysis; no doubt there are many more. Jason van Tol Myocum
Killing heritage I am inspired by your article of last week (27 January) to write, with a scintilla of irrepressible hope, about the failure of this Council and its planning department to adequately ensure the standard of the built environment of Mullumbimby in general and, most specifically, the protection of the Mullumbimby
The flying fox colony in Mullumbimby shifts up and down the banks of Brunswick River and leaves a distinctive aroma for passersby. Flying foxes are an essential part of the local ecosystem as pollinators and for seed dispersal, however, they can also transmit viruses to humans, and are being displaced by human activity. Photo Aslan Shand crossover between species can occur’. Dr Kirsten Martinus, the study’s lead author, said climate change and associated severe weather events were altering habitat. ‘So, where a habitat may have had ample food for an ecosystem, suddenly you get a change, and the food or the ecosystem actually changes itself and you get animals coming in contact with each other that previously were not in contact with each other. And from that you get novel diseases occurring’. Dr Katie Woolaston from the Queensland University of
Technology said: ‘As climates get warmer, [wildlife] need to move to more temperate regions, and that might, or likely does, bring them into closer contact with people.’ The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted an increase in the number of people exposed to vectorborne and water-borne diseases, like malaria and cholera, owing to changes in temperature and rainfall patterns. Dr Woolaston co-authored a United Nations report that found there are up to 827,000 animal viruses, which could
Heritage Conservation Area (MHCA). Take a stroll down the back lanes of East Mullumbimby and see some of the back block buildings that have been allowed. The community Heritage Panel meetings are now held only three times a year and community input is becoming less and less effective as – the MHCA is failing. Some DAs (development applications) have been approved without MHCA members being notified. One of these is the importation of a ‘Queenslander’ which has been allowed to be raised higher than any of the buildings in the section of Stuart St (near the Museum). Homes built in Queensland have zilch place in the MHCA. Another DA, at the back of a Station Street property, circumvented scrutiny by not declaring it was in the MHCA. Surely all planners should be vigilant enough to check the vicinity of all the properties they are assessing? Finally, we have another version of potential MHCA degradation with the presentation of DA 10.2020.647.1 at 144 Stuart Street. The Owner/Applicant is a Byron Shire planner. I am informed
that its assessment is being outsourced to an ‘independent assessor’, that person being Mike Svikis, a planning consultant in Ocean Shores. The DA is for demolition of the existing simple yet elegant brick house (approx 60 years old) and to import yet another ‘Queenslander’. This DA should be allowed to be discussed at the next Heritage Panel meeting. From a brief perusal of the DA it is probably safe to assume there are more buildings to come, as the site covers three titles, which begs questions about the incompleteness of the DA. Is this piecemeal approach considered appropriate? Demolition in a conservation area is legislated as the very last option. DAs such as this make it the very easy first option. The bringing in of another State’s heritage to plant in a conservation area (its removal is considered to be demolition in heritage terms) at best shows ignorance, or disregard, for the primacy of authenticity, and in a less flattering light could be regarded as the theft of another town/city’s heritage. This DA was lodged over the holidays. Its exhibition
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Consumption a pandemic risk Dr Woolaston said that wildlife trade is a much bigger issue in Australia than people realise. ‘We get a lot of international wildlife in for the pet trade, which is quite a big industry. We also have our own wildlife trade with respect to kangaroos, which is a commercialised wildlife trade in Australia, which a lot of people don’t realise comes with risk in respect to viruses.’ However, of greater concern are global industries that are indirectly responsible for wildlife trade in their production process, according to Dr Woolaston and Dr Martinus. The cheap fashion industry, in particular, is a major culprit in Australia. The UWA study found period ended in January. However, I’m sure prompt late submissions will be taken into account. June Grant Mullumbimby
LëſĎ ƆIJşĕƆ Ɛş Ǖ ōō Thanks for finding the best replacements for Mungo... David Heilpern is absolutely fabulous David’s article on a Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme is absolutely brilliant, what a great mind he is and has been for so long! Herbert Kinzl Suffolk Park
that for too long, pandemic research has focused on the locations where pandemics start. ‘These may be in particular regions of the world, and so we tend to focus on that, but the problem is, a lot of times those activities that are occurring there are actually part of a larger global supply chain’, Dr Martinus said. ‘We may not think that we’re responsible for the emergence of pandemics, but it is our global demand
for the products, particularly for cheap products, that then puts pressure on particular places, which are vulnerable anyway, to produce things cheaply and [that] then puts people at risk. ‘I think the pandemic has really highlighted that, because we’ve become more and more disconnected with where food comes from, or how products are made, and by doing that we’ve removed any responsibility for our own choices in the things that happen’.
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