Today we may survive by ‘breaking the chain’ of infection of COVID-19, but our future will be defined by our ability to build back a close bond with nature. Nature can no longer be taken for granted, and pandemics like this one are an indication of tipping points being reached across our planet.
The response to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic demands swift and focused humanitarian action. But it is also critical to define the root causes and to start to address these, to improve future resilience. One recognised driver of rising human health risks is the dramatic decline in biodiversity and the collapse of whole ecosystems. This is a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ impact played out over the last decades, which is now showing planetary consequences. By continuing to clear, drain and degrade forests and wetlands, to pollute the ocean and perpetuate climate change, human health hazards have increased and people have become more exposed to those hazards, including, but not limited to, emerging infectious diseases, which pass from animals to people.
Comments closed.