The writer is director-general of the Museum of Natural History, Berlin, the Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Research and a professor at the Humboldt University.
As the Covid-19 pandemic spreads around the planet, we have become part of a natural experiment. A virus has crossed the species line and is now travelling like wildfire through its new host. Normally, natural landforms such as mountains, oceans or canyons slow the spread of such outbreaks. But this virus has taken hold of a cosmopolitan species — a highly mobile, super-numerous and super-networked one: humans.
We pay too little attention to the fact that our arrogant relationship with nature fuels, and even causes, many of humanity’s greatest challenges. The threats we face are interrelated: climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the emergence of entirely new pathogens that threaten us time and again. Countries are flooded, forests burn, glaciers melt, oceans warm and insects die, all through our actions.
Pathogens break through species boundaries because we are exploiting natural resources without respect. For example, overfishing in the coastal waters of many African countries by foreign fleets leads local populations increasingly to turn to bushmeat for sustenance, increasing the likelihood (as with Ebola) that pathogens will be transmitted to humans.
Markets that trade wild animals as well as pets and farm animals are ideal locations for pathogens to cross boundaries. This was demonstrated in the Sars outbreak of 2002/2003, which some virologists attribute to contact with the civet cat that is eaten as a delicacy in parts of China. There are indications that the current coronavirus outbreak also spread to humans at a wildlife market in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Our health and wellbeing as a species are linked to how we define our place in nature. Seeing ourselves as masters of our universe, we kill and sell whatever we want — even if that is bats or pangolins. Billions of dollars’ worth of wild animals and plants are traded globally. Not every trade contributes to the destruction of biodiversity, but unsustainable and ruthless trade in wildlife destroys the diversity of nature.
In October, China is due to host a meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming. In addition to this global summit, known as the “Davos of Nature”, a meeting on the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Fair Distribution of Natural Resources will be convened there. The time and place seem ironic, given that China was the ground zero of a pandemic possibly caused by the illegal trade in wildlife.
But it is not appropriate to point fingers at a particular country. Governments have not typically been concerned with redefining their role in nature. We all carry on as before, taking nature’s wealth for granted. We might acknowledge the threat of climate change, but most of us do not want to change anything fundamentally. A few promises here and bans there; a bit of money for the World Health Organisation; some more for research on infectious diseases.
In the midst of this crisis, it is becoming clear how irresponsible it is merely to accept the rapidly deteriorating state of our planet’s biodiversity and the climate. For decades politicians have been hesitating. They insist that our economies and lifestyles can only gradually adapt. Yet, the coronavirus pandemic has shown that when danger is imminent, rapid and consistent action is possible.
Tackling climate change and enforcing measures against the illegal trade in wildlife is just as possible as using natural resources for the benefit of all people. We already have the technology; it is the will to act collectively that is lacking.
A global economic system based on the exploitation of nature will fail. But a diverse environment, which determines our wellbeing, keeps us healthy, feeds, clothes and shelters us, must be protected as a global common good by a well-informed global leadership. Recognising what makes us vulnerable and learning to value our common heritage is an enormous challenge. But we must tackle it now for our own sake.
