Vatican COVID-19 Commission
Original Commission published by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
Executive summary: Ecology Taskforce
SEE: COVID-19 is a crisis with nature
Zoonotic diseases are increasing as ecosystems decline globally
The coronavirus crisis can be seen as the result of humanity’s increasingly disharmonious relationship with the natural world. This latest coronavirus, like its predecessors, is a ‘zoonotic’ disease – an infection that has jumped from animals to people, often due to pathogens passing from wild animals to humans and then leading to human-to-human transmission. Research shows that nearly 70% of emerging zoonotic infections are linked to wildlife, primarily driven by land changes caused by human activities. In recent decades, several new infectious pathogens have emerged as wildlife habitats have been destroyed and ecosystems violated at rates unprecedented in human history.
Environmental experts have been warning for years about crucial tipping points in our relationship with the planet. The Stockholm Resilience Center’s landmark Planetary Boundaries report says the world has already crossed crucial thresholds in climate, biosphere integrity, land system change and biogeochemical flows.
JUDGE: Nature is sending us a message
Failing to take care of the planet means also not taking care of ourselves
The Covid-19 pandemic reveals the fundamental truth that societies cannot be healthy unless the planet and its ecosystems are healthy. The origin of the present coronavirus – and its predecessors SARS and MERS, as well as Ebola – is linked to human interference in the intricate balance of natural ecosystems.
Scientists say our rapid destruction of the Earth’s lifesustaining ecosystems and biodiversity, through wildlife trading, deforestation, mining, logging and agriculture, is increasing the danger of new, and possibly deadlier, viruses evolving to infect humans.
In ‘wet markets’ around the world, dead and live wild and domestic animals are on sale (often in highly unsanitary conditions) alongside fruit and vegetables.
Climate change is also disrupting the basic lifesupport systems that underlie human health and wellbeing. Research shows that infectious disease agents such as protozoa, bacteria and viruses are highly sensitive to changes in climatic conditions such as temperature or rainfall. UN Environment Programme chief Inger Andersen says nature is tellling us there are ‘too many pressures at the same time on our natural systems’.