Remember back in the summer of 2014 there was that huge Ebola outbreak in West Africa? And there was panic all over the world about it spreading internationally?
Well, it turns out good old deforestation may have been the cause of the Ebola outbreak.
Speaking at a summit in London French Minister of the Environment Segolene Royale said that the outbreak of Ebola may have been caused by deforestation. Royale stated:
“The destruction of the natural habitat of fruit-eating bats drove the animals to approach human settlements to find food and the virus may have been transmitted during this increased contact resulting from deforestation.”
Now, why was there large-scale deforestation in West Africa? Glad you asked. According to Royale, it was due to “mining activity” and “large-scale logging for export.”
If you remember all the details about ebola, you’ll remember the whole epidemic was hugely sensationalized by the media. If you picked up a newspaper you’d have thought it was the Rapture. This isn’t to undermine the deaths of 11,000 people and 23,000 infected.
In addition to this, only SIX of those cases weren’t in West Africa. Four of those six cases were recorded in the United States, with only one death. From these figures, you can see that if anyone should have been professing the start of an apocalypse, it should have been the media in West Africa. Not the media in the U.S. CNN compared it to the “Isis of Biological Agents.”
They also had this to say:
"Will Ebola sink dems' chances at the polls?" pic.twitter.com/r60B5x9ktp
— Dan Brian (@mallow610) October 19, 2014
This is a shocking statement from the French environment minister and it gives us an extra reason to continue the fight against deforestation. If deforestation may have caused the deaths of over 10,000 people, how do we know it won’t happen again if we continue to cut down trees?
Featured image by Bhossfeld via Pixabay.
