- Question
Is human destruction of nature responsible for COVID-19?
As coronavirus infects more and more people globally, the question becomes why now? Why has the pandemic began now? Could it be that increasing levels of climate change and continued destruction of the environment are to blame?
Yes, destruction of the environment caused the coronavirus pandemic
This position holds that human destruction of nature caused the coronavirus pandemic. It argues that environmental devastation and practices such as eating wild meat push humans and animals together, and that without this damage the COVID-19 outbreak would not have occurred.
No, destruction of the environment did not cause the coronavirus pandemic
This position holds that the destruction of nature did not cause the Covid-19 pandemic. It argues that, devastating as the virus is, its origins lie elsewhere — in the wildlife trade — and that pandemics simply happen periodically, independent of human environmental damage.