OM GUPTA

XII - A

GST
PROJECT
 COVID – 19:
NATURE’S FURY OR
HUMAN ENDEAVOUR
GONE HAYWIRE

Project Prepared By
Om Gupta
Class XII ‘A’
Roll No.17
Session: 2020-21
 INDEX
I. Acknowledgement
II. Introduction
III. Content
• Mistakes of the Mankind
• Our Development Model –
A Mockery
• Signs of Nature’s Pain
• Nature’s Revenge
• A Lesson to Human Race
IV. My Views on the Topic
V. Bibliography
This is hereby to certify that the original and
genuine investigation work has been carried
out to investigate about the subject matter
and the related data collection and
investigation has been completed solely,
sincerely and satisfactorily by Om Gupta of
class XII of Army Public School Nehru road,
Lucknow, U.P. regarding his project titled
“COVID – 19: Nature’s Fury or Human
Endeavour Gone Haywire”.

Teacher’s Signature
 AKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of

gratitude to my teacher Ms. Nandini Ma’am
as well as our principal Ms. Neena Mathur
who gave me this golden opportunity to do
this wonderful project on the topic “COVID –
19: Nature’s Fury or Human Endeavour Gone
Haywire”, which also helped me in doing a
lot of Research and I came to know about
so many new things I am really thankful to
them. Secondly, I would also like to thank my
parents and friends who helped me a lot in
finalizing this project within the limited time
frame.

-Om Gupta
XII
 INTRODUCTION
Before December 2019, SARS-CoV-2 —
the virus that causes the Covid-
19 illness — was unknown to science.
“A pneumonia of unknown cause”
was first reported to the World Health
Organization on December 31, after a
slew of cases appeared in Wuhan,
China. Since then, the virus has been
detected in millions of people
worldwide, and killed hundreds of
thousands. This is a pandemic, a global
crisis and tragedy on a scale that’s
hard to fathom.
There are a lot of new things for the
public to learn — about the virus,
controlling its spread, social distancing,
treating the sick, and how our
governments should react to this
chaotic situation. It’s like we’ve all
been dropped in to study for a test in a
class that no one signed up for. It’s
confusing and hard to process.
 MISTAKES
Of The
MANKIND
• The recent outbreak began in Wuhan, a city in
the Hubei province of China. Reports of the
first COVID-19 cases started in December 2019.
• Both SARS and COVID-19 are in the
"coronavirus" family,
and both appear to
have emerged from
animals in China's
notorious wildlife
markets.
• Experts had long
predicted that these
markets, known to be
potential sources of disease,
would enable another
outbreak.
• The markets, and the wildlife
trade that supports them, are
the underlying problem of these pandemics;
until China solves that problem, more are likely
to emerge.
• Well not just coronavirus, humans have caused
many pandemics to themselves.
• According to science journalist Sonia Shah,
author of the 2017 book "Pandemic," the
expansion of humans onto more and more of
the planet’s land has increased the likelihood
of disease outbreaks in two ways.
• First, as humans move into what were once
animal habitats, we end up living closer to
animals that might contain dangerous
pathogens.

• Second, as we destroy or alter animal habitats,

we’re driving away or killing off animals that
once served as a “firewall” between those
pathogens and us. And the human land
development driving this trend shows no signs
of stopping.
 OUR
DEVELOPMENT
MODEL – A Mockery
• The economic development adopted in last
century has to be re-evaluated.

• The large-scale industrialisation driven by fossil

fuels has continued to deplete the
environment – situation today has reached to
an extent that it is threatening human
existence.

• For arresting global warming, countries

collectively decided to bring down their
emissions and a target was agreed by
everyone.
• However, going by current rate, IPCC (United
Nations Inter-Governmental Report on Climate
change) predicts that countries are unlikely to
achieve the target emission reductions.
• Another aspect of growth model is that
businesses are more guided by improvement
in bottom line than impact it will have on
society and natures.

“It inherently justifies greed and exploitation of

resources whether it is human beings or nature. The
self-destructive path has led us to situation where
are we do. The coronavirus is just a warning to
amend ourselves.”
 SIGNS Of
NATURE’S
PAIN
The present crisis is a reminder from Earth
that it is sick and needs urgent remedy.
Driven by incessant greed and materialistic
pleasures, human beings have exploited
nature which is evident from the statistics
below:

• According to the
estimates of World
Bank, globally forest
cover has declined
from around 32% of
total area in 1980 to
30% in 2015

• According to a study, 80 per cent of

global wastewater goes untreated,
containing everything from human
 waste to highly toxic industrial
discharges.

• According to the latest air quality

database, 97% of cities in low- and
middle- income countries with more
than 100,000 inhabitants do not meet
WHO air quality guidelines.

There have been massive fires in

Amazon, Australia and California, frequent
floods, melting of glaciers etc which show
nature’s fury which we have conveniently
ignored.
We must all take this as mild response
from nature of its power.
The fact that even a ‘microscopic
organism’ can bring the omnipotent
‘human beings’ (as we falsely believe us to
be) to their knees bears the testimony to
this.
 NATURE’S REVENGE

Nature fights back:While the whole world is

locked in their homes and hospitals, Nature
shows its wrath and spans its wings to fly
through hard times and
make us reap what we had
sown.
 Is COVID – 19 Nature’s revenge ? See
what the world has to say… :
Boston Globe: "Is the coronavirus pandemic Mother
Nature’s revenge?" — "In China, I always admire
how when it comes to food, nothing goes to waste.
The Chinese eat practically everything: I’ve been
served turtle knuckles, gelatin cubes made from
duck’s blood, tuna eyeballs, sea horses, bowls of
chicken feet, whole songbirds, and, yes, their nests. I
once dined in a Chengdu Buddhist temple with
biologists who counted more than 30 plant species
on our plates."
Los Angeles Times: "Column: Bears thriving at
Yosemite. Clear skies. Does coronavirus reveal a
‘World Without Us’?" — "Skies have cleared over
the smoggiest urban centers, wildlife runs free in
parks, streets and plazas, flowers rise from the
cracks of formerly well-trodden sidewalks and
birdsong replaces the more motorized score of
modern daily life. With much of the world’s
population on COVID-19 lockdown, nature has
never seemed more gloriously present — sublimely
indifferent to human anxieties, eager to run riot
over all the places in which it was once
controlled, to return to the spaces from which it
was expelled."
 NATURE’S
COMEBACK -
A Lesson To
Human Race
Washington Post: "As humans stay indoors, wild
animals take back what was once theirs" — "It's
not easy
being a baby
sea turtle,
hatching into
a human's
world. Curious
children,
leashless
dogs, oblivious joggers: The dangers are many.
Some never complete their postnatal dash to
the ocean."

New York Times: "Animals Are Rewilding Our

Cities. On YouTube, at Least." — "At the end of
March I was, like many people, spending hours
each day on the internet, my attention glued
to graphs of projected deaths, maps of
infection hot spots, photos
of masked travelers
huddled in subway cars.
But then new images
appeared, and they were
quite unlike the others.
Here were maps showing improvements in air
quality, photographs of deserted streets and
squares bathed in sunlight and, most surprising,
videos of wild animals thriving in newly
deserted towns and cities."
Washington Post: "The coronavirus pandemic
has halted tourism, and animals are benefiting

from it" — "As the coronavirus pandemic

spreads, lockdowns are extended and
restrictions on global travel continue to tighten,
one of the industries hit hardest by the lack of
travelers has been animal tourism."
Wired: "The Coronavirus Lockdown Is a Threat
for Many Animals, Not a Blessing" — "It’s a trope
from any movie
about the end of
humanity:
Vegetation slowly
reclaims cities, while
deer and foxes
roam the streets.
Probably the closest
we’ll ever get to this
scenario without an
actual apocalypse is happening right now in
locked-down metropolises across the world."
Weforum: "Nature’s comeback? No, the
coronavirus pandemic threatens the world’s
wildlife" — "Despite promising signs that lack of
human activity had lead to flourishing wildlife
across the world, loss of income is causing
some people to exploit the environment. Wild
animals, fish and forest trees are rarely owned
by anyone, and they are found in rural areas
where policing is difficult."
 My Views On
The Topic . . .
I’ve always felt the need to nurture and care
the environment. In our fast pace lives and
incessant material desire, many of us have
forgotten to live in harmony with nature – as our
ancient culture taught us to Sustainable living
has always been integral part of Indian living.
Environment is fundamental to human
existence and plays a very significant
role in human civilization. Human beings
have close relations with the biosphere
in which they live. The whole
environment and ecology consisting of
earth, air, water and plants provide
conditions for sustaining human life.
The, present crisis gives all of us opportunity to
reflect, ponder and decide on changes in our
behaviour and actions. Please take care of
parents, serve the needy, act as responsible
citizens and take actions which help in
improvement of environment around us.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
• www.google.in
• www.wikipedia.com
• https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-
covid19/
• https://www.avaadaenergy.com/blogs/o
utbreak-of-coronavirus-covid-19-natures-
fury/
• https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashbo
ard/index.html#/bda7594740fd4029942346
7b48e9ecf6
• https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/04/2
9/wildlife-coronavirus-animals-climate