Along with millions of others no doubt, I have been thinking about and looking into where viruses come from. It’s obviously a complicated subject and people far better schooled than me on the subject can give you concrete answers and histories but what has become crystal clear over my last few days of digging: what we eat and how we treat the planet are inextricably linked to the rise of pandemics.
When wild animals like bats lose their habitat or get sucked into semi-urban environments, contamination occurs.
When the exotic animal trade continues to go grow, we see transfers of previously unknown-to-human diseases proliferate.
When farm animals get subjected to increasingly worse conditions, epidemics burst forth.
When we raise entire rainforests to the ground for mono-crop agriculture, we chip away at ecosystem services, aka the way in which the natural world supports human life.
The good news is that we know what we need to do: hold governments and corporates accountable for environmental damage, transform to circular systems, drastically cut our reliance on industrial meat and dairy…so with all your additional time you may be grappling with because of this global corona pandemic, here’s what you can do: contact your representatives (sign petitions, write emails, participate in online strikes), invest time in eating a more plant-based diets (learn new recipes, try plant-based meat, reduce beef) and buy as little as possible that isn’t absolutely necessary.
We’ve known for a long time that we must change how we live. Turns out, we may no longer have a choice in the matter.
#LetterFrom TheEditor of Green Queen. https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/