Webinars about the origins of the coronavirus and its impact on Malta’s future mobility will be part of the upcoming Earth Week Malta.

To launch Malta’s first Earth Week events, the organisers are including online webinars from Extinction Rebellion and the Project Aegle Foundation (PAF) to discuss where the virus came from and what it means for future work and travel habits.

Extinction Rebellion’s activist and ecologist Jérémie Raem is expected to host an interactive presentation about the origins and impacts of the coronavirus through discussing zoonotic diseases.

These are diseases like rabies and the zika virus which can pass from animals and humans.

This webinar will take place on Wednesday, Earth Day.

On Thursday, PAF Malta will host a discussion about how the coronavirus is changing and will continue to change the way people move around and commute.

PAF’s general manager Nicole Klaesener said their talk is aimed at discussing how to accommodate these changes in remote working and to build trust in using public transport over returning to private cars.

“The virus forcefully changed our behaviours and we should be accommodating those changes and maintaining the gains like flexible working arrangements,” she said.

Global pandemics are not the norm for the annual environment and conservation event, Earth Week Malta’s founder Zen D’Amato Gautam said, but the coronavirus did provide important lessons to heed for climate change.

“We were warned about the virus from scientists in prominent positions, but the authorities ignored them. The same is happening when we warn about climate change,” she said.

“We need to listen and develop an action plan in the future, a programme which mitigates the consequences and is proactive on future mobility and our health care system,” she added.