Swiss ecology researchers against the next pandemic
How Environmental PERSPECTIVES has repeatedly reported on the risks of pandemic spread: Massively declining biodiversity and our ecological footprint are among the drivers of future pandemics. Now 126 Swiss researchers are calling on politicians to take action against the ecological crisis.
No two pandemics are the same. 126 Researchers from Switzerland are convinced: the Covid 19 pandemic falls into the group of zoonoses. These are infectious diseases that are transmitted between wild animals, domestic animals and humans.
The vast majority of viruses are harmless to humans, he said, but even a small percentage of infectious species is enough to create a phenomenal reserve of aggressive disease spreaders.
"For years we have been confronted with HIV, Ebola, Dengue, Zika, Chikungunya, Lassa fever, Sars, H5N1, H1N1 as well as other new diseases. Their numbers seem to be steadily increasing over the last 50 years. That is why epidemics are occurring more and more frequently," reads the recently published commentary in the "Bund" (title: "Mit mehr Ökologie gegen die nächste Pandemie" [With more ecology against the next pandemic] of May 24, 2020).
It states that fewer and fewer wild animals exist on earth. They now account for a total of only five percent of the biomass of all land mammals!
"Therefore, one might think that the threat posed by the transmission of a virus from wild mammals to humans would decrease. However, the opposite is true. Because our footprint on the entire planet has become problematic," it continues.
This is impressively shown by the global report of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
Risk No. 1: Transmission of pathogens
The severe fragmentation and urban sprawl of natural landscapes and the alarming depletion of biodiversity mean that natural food chains are so disrupted that wildlife in many places are forced to turn to resources generated by human activities.
However, this increases the risk of transmission of pathogens from wild animals to humans, either directly or via their pets and livestock. Viruses benefit from these newly much more frequent contacts with the new potential hosts. Those that leapfrog benefit from the global interconnectedness of our activities, as we are now seeing with the Sars-Cov-2 virus.
Mass extinction of species progresses
Pandemics are only one aspect of global change. No less worrying is the mass extinction of species triggered by changes in the natural environment, the overexploitation of natural resources, the pollution of air, water and soil, and the climate disruption caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
Humanity today is confronted with the consequences of its own activities. Like the IPCC for climate, IPBES has extensive factual knowledge regarding the challenges of biodiversity and ecosystem conservation. The resulting conclusions must be appropriated by all societal actors, especially elected politicians, if they want to initiate national and supranational policies that are up to these challenges.
Political change of course called for
"The four of us speak on behalf of a total of 126 scientists from Switzerland who call on our politicians to act without delay on the factors that ultimately underlie coming dramatic pandemics. As an important step in the direction of the needed change of course, we recommend taking innovative measures to counteract climate change more decisively than before, to protect biodiversity, tropical forests and other natural habitats on land as well as in water, and to promote a more respectful use of land, as well as an economy that allows us to significantly reduce our ecological footprint." (Source: The Confederation)
Dhe 126 scientists behind the call can be found at here
