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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/29/protecting-nature-vital-pandemics-report-outbreaks-wild>
"The world is in an “era of pandemics” and unless the destruction of the
natural world is halted they will emerge more often, spread more
rapidly, kill more people and affect the global economy with more
devastating impact than ever before, according to a report from some of
the world’s leading scientists.
The emergence of diseases such as Covid-19, bird flu and HIV from
animals was entirely driven by the razing of wild places for farming and
the trade in wild species, which brought people into contact with the
dangerous microbes, the experts said.
“The risk of pandemics is increasing rapidly, with more than five new
diseases emerging in people every year, any one of which has the
potential to become pandemic,” the report says.
It estimates there are more than 500,000 unknown viruses in mammals and
birds that could infect humans.
The current approach to disease outbreaks is trying to contain them and
develop treatments or vaccines, which the scientists say is a “slow and
uncertain path”. Instead the root causes must be tackled, including
stopping the demolition of forests to produce meat, palm oil, metals and
other commodities for richer countries.
The costs of such a transformative change would be “trivial”, the
experts found, compared with the trillions of dollars of damage caused
by the coronavirus pandemic alone. Their proposed solutions include a
global surveillance network, taxing damaging meat production and ending
taxpayer subsidies that ravage the natural world."
Via Glyn Moody, who wrote "it’s all interconnected…"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
