Author Description

We live in a rapidly changing world. The significant factors causing environmental change today are the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. We cannot yet foresee when COVID-19 will end, even though it has been spreading since its first report in December 2019. As of May 2021, more than 150 million people have been infected, and the number of COVIDrelated deaths has exceeded 3 million people worldwide. With such direct damages, COVID-19 has profoundly influenced the living conditions of vulnerable people such as those living in poverty, non-regular workers, the elderly, children, and women. It has been pointed out that a potential cause of its occurrence and spread is the expansion of human activities, which degrades natural ecosystems and increases the risks of encountering unknown viruses. Recent globalization trends have contributed to the rapid diffusion of the virus and the expansion of the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic also highlights essential issues in today's society, such as the relationship between humans and nature, the vulnerable sides of globalization, and various socioeconomic divides among and within countries. Climate change has also been progressing, making its impacts more apparent globally, particularly over the past 10 years. For example, India was hit by extraordinary heatwaves of more than 50°C in 2019, and the Philippines has suffered from severe damage from super typhoons. Simultaneously, Japan has been experiencing the increased impact of larger-scale floods caused by torrential rains and typhoons, which have caused escalating levels of damage. Bushfires in Australia in 2020 and California in 2021 gave a strong shock to the world. Although the times and places were different, all of these events were similarly reported using words such as "unprecedented" or "once a life