habitiat ecoSYSTEM loss
420 sparked by <div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">see deforerestation</span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">see eco-system services</span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
</span></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/ecological-collapse/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/ecological-collapse/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx twet</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>'Ecological Ponzi scheme': Dire scientific assessment warns humanity in denial of looming 'collapse of civilization'</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jessica Corbett and Common Dreams January 13, 2021</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In an example to the rest of the scientific community and an effort to wake up people—particularly policymakers—worldwide, 17 scientists penned a comprehensive assessment of the current state of the planet and what the future could hold due to biodiversity loss, climate disruption, human consumption, and population growth.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Ours is not a call to surrender—we aim to provide leaders with a realistic 'cold shower' of the state of the planet that is essential for planning to avoid a ghastly future," according to the perspective paper, co-authored by experts across Australia, Mexico, and the United States, and published in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Co-author Paul R. Ehrlich of Stanford University's Center for Conservation Biology—</b>who has raised alarm about overpopulation for decades—told Common Dreams his colleagues "are all scared" about what's to come.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Scientists have to learn to be communicators," said Ehrlich, citing James Hansen's warning about the consequences of "scientific reticence." Hansen, a professor at Columbia University's Earth Institute and former director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, testified to Congress about the climate crisis in 1988.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ehrlich was straightforward about how "extremely dangerous things are" now and the necessity of a "World War II-type mobilization" to prevent predictions detailed in the paper: "a ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health, and climate-disruption upheavals (including looming massive migrations), and resource conflicts."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"What we are saying might not be popular, and indeed is frightening. But we need to be candid, accurate, and honest if humanity is to understand the enormity of the challenges we face in creating a sustainable future," said co-author Daniel T. Blumstein of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles, in a statement about the paper.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"By scientists' telling it like it is, we hope to empower politicians to work to represent their citizen, not corporate, constituents," he said in an email to Common Dreams.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The paper, Ehrlich and Blumstein pointed out, comes in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic—which, according to Johns Hopkins University, has killed nearly two million people. Over the past year, the Covid-19 crisis has provoked calls for humanity to end its destruction of the natural world to prevent future public health catastrophes.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>"We're all seeing the shocks to our global systems</b> now from Covid and the rise of authoritarian leaders," Blumstein said. "Because our current ways of life are ecologically unsustainable (we're living in an ecological Ponzi scheme), we fully anticipate more—and more deadly—pandemics in the future. We expect civil unrest, wars, and famines. We are all shaken by the likelihood of the collapse of civilization as we know it."</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The new warning from scientists, Blumstein noted, cites over 150 other papers "documenting the diverse and shocking decline in biodiversity and planetary 'health' and their consequences." Among the cited sources is a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report that in September revealed an "average 68% decrease in population sizes of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish between 1970 and 2016."</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"In the midst of a global pandemic, it is now more important than ever to take unprecedented and coordinated global action to halt and start to reverse the loss of biodiversity and wildlife populations across the globe by the end of the decade, and protect our future health and livelihoods," WWF International director general Marco Lambertini said at the time.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The co-authors—including William J. Ripple of Oregon State University, who last year led thousands of scientists in declaring a climate emergency and earlier this month led a call for "a massive-scale mobilization to address the climate crisis"—echoed Lambertini's message while also underscoring the importance of increasing awareness about what's actually needed.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Humanity is causing a rapid loss of biodiversity and, with it, Earth's ability to support complex life. But the mainstream is having difficulty grasping the magnitude of this loss, despite the steady erosion of the fabric of human civilization," the paper says.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"In fact, the scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeforms is so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts," said lead author Corey Bradshaw of Australia's Flinders University in a statement. "The problem is compounded by ignorance and short-term self-interest, with the pursuit of wealth and political interests stymieing the action that is crucial for survival."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The paper explains that "while suggested solutions abound, the current scale of their implementation does not match the relentless progression of biodiversity loss and other existential threats tied to the continuous expansion of the human enterprise." According to its authors, "That we are already on the path of a sixth major extinction is now scientifically undeniable."</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"><b>"With such a rapid, catastrophic loss of biodiversity, the ecosystem services it provides have also declined," </b>the paper explains. Consequences include "reduced carbon sequestration, reduced pollination, soil degradation, poorer water and air quality, more frequent and intense flooding and fires, and compromised human health."</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Highlighting estimates that the human population will near 10 billion by 2050, the scientists lay out how "large population size and continued growth are implicated in many societal problems," from food insecurity, soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and an increased chance of pandemics, to crowding, joblessness, deteriorating infrastructure, and bad governance.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The paper also details the planetary impacts of dirty energy and carbon-intensive food production, and says that "while climate change demands a full exit from fossil fuel use well before 2050, pressures on the biosphere are likely to mount prior to decarbonization as humanity brings energy alternatives online."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A section on failed international goals declares that "stopping biodiversity loss is nowhere close to the top of any country's priorities, trailing far behind other concerns such as employment, healthcare, economic growth, or currency stability."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"The dangerous effects of climate change are much more evident to people than those of biodiversity loss, but society is still finding it difficult to deal with them effectively," the scientists note, while decrying "utterly inadequate" efforts by governments to even try to meet the targets of the landmark Paris climate agreement.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">They further decry the recent rise of right-wing, anti-environment agendas in countries including Australia, Brazil, and the United States—which recently denied President Donald Trump a second term. Ehrlich expressed hope that President-elect Joe Biden will work to deliver on the climate promises he made as a candidate</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Biden's vow to rejoin the Paris agreement "is positive news," but "it is a minuscule gesture given the scale of the challenge," Ehrlich said in a statement.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The president-elect "is moving in the right direction," Ehrlich told Common Dreams, pointing to the selection of former Secretary of State John Kerry as his climate envoy. However, "the Paris goals are increasingly looking inadequate," and "Biden's political opportunities to do anything major may be greatly constrained," he added.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Blumstein stressed that "recycling, using less plastic, eating less meat, taking public transportation, and flying less, while all important, will simply not create the rapid change we need now to save much of the Earth's biodiversity and our lives."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to Blumstein, "We need rapid political change."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He urged voters to elect leaders who will end fossil fuel use as well as "eliminate perpetual economic growth and properly price externalities so that the environmental costs are built into the price of a product." He also emphasized the importance of access to education and reproductive control, and the need to rein in corporate lobbying and enact campaign finance reform so politicians serve citizens' needs.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>"Ultimately," Blumstein added, "we must focus on making equity and well-being society's goals—not the constant accumulation of more junk."</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In their paper, the UCLA scientist and his 16 co-authors "contend that only a realistic appreciation of the colossal challenges facing the international community might allow it to chart a less-ravaged future."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It is "incumbent on experts in any discipline that deals with the future of the biosphere and human well-being to eschew reticence, avoid sugar-coating the overwhelming challenges, ahead and 'tell it like it is,'" they conclude. "Anything else is misleading at best, or negligent and potentially lethal for the human enterprise at worst."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Earth Is a Ponzi Scheme on the Verge of Collapse - Alternet.org ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A decade closer to catastrophe: Looking back at the mayhem of the ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Study confirms fear that intense ocean acidification portends ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Fifth of countries at risk of ecosystem collapse, analysis finds ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Climate tipping point ecosystem collapses may come faster than ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Humanity has already had four major ecological collapses: how can ... ›</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/new-global-report-warns-nearly-40-of-plants-are-at-risk-of-extinction" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/new-global-report-warns-nearly-40-of-plants-are-at-risk-of-extinction</a></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> no lnx vid guk twt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">New global report warns nearly 40% of plants are at risk of extinction</font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jessica Corbett and Common Dreams October 01, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Humanity's destruction of nature has made an estimated two in five plant species worldwide at risk of extinction, according to an assessment published Wednesday by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the United Kingdom.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The fourth annual report, entitled State of the World's Plants and Fungi (pdf), draws on the expertise of 210 researchers from 42 countries for what professor Alexandre Antonelli, director of science at RBG Kew, calls an "unparalleled collaborative effort" that aims to put the planet and all its inhabitants on a more sustainable path.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Open your fridge, peek into your medicine cupboard, examine your living room, feel your clothes. For thousands of years, we have searched nature to satisfy our hunger, cure our diseases, build our houses, and make our lives more comfortable," Antonelli writes in the report's introduction.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"But our early exploration of useful traits in species relied on rudimentary tools, and Indigenous knowledge was lost as local traditions were downplayed and globalization emerged," he adds. "As a result, humanity is still a long way from utilizing the full potential of biodiversity, in particular plants and fungi, which play critical roles in ecosystems. Now, more than ever before, we need to explore the solutions they could provide to the global challenges we face."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The report comes on the heels of a United Nations assessment that the international community has failed to fulfill any of the biodiversity targets that were set a decade ago as well as the latest edition of World Wide Fund for Nature's flagship publication,</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> which warned that "nature—our life-support system—is declining at a staggering rate." Specifically, WWF found "an average 68% decrease in population sizes of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish between 1970 and 2016."</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Throughout the report's 12 chapters, researchers address the importance of seeking out species before they disappear and calculating extinction risk; ways that plants and fungi can be used in terms of food, energy, healthcare, and more; how biological resources can be used more wisely; and the conditions in the U.K. and its territories.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"<b>Natural ecosystems provide useful services for humanity</b>, such as regulating climate, preventing floods, and filtering water. As the building blocks of ecosystems, plants and fungi have the potential to help us address current environmental challenges, such as climate change," the report notes. "However, these natural benefits could be compromised by biodiversity loss, caused by humans clearing or degrading natural vegetation and over-harvesting wild species, as well as by shifting weather patterns."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Given the importance of plants and fungi, "we need to have a rough idea of the conservation status of every species," Eimear Nic Lughadha, conservation scientist at RBG Kew and lead author of the extinction chapter, explained in a statement. Lughadha highlighted advancements with artificial intelligence, adding, "the techniques are good enough to say, 'this area has a lot of species that haven't been assessed but are almost certainly threatened.'"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2019 alone, 1,942 plants and 1,886 fungi were scientifically named for the first time, according to the report—which adds that "current threats to global biodiversity, from climate change, logging, and land-use change, make the task of cataloguing species a race against time."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Only six species of medicinal fungi have been assessed for conservation status,</b> "one of which, Fomitopsis officinalis, a wood-inhabiting parasitic fungus, has already been pushed to the brink of extinction," the report says. Out of 25,791 known medicinal plants, 5,411 have been assessed and 723—or 13%—are threatened.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Professor Monique Simmonds, deputy director of science at RBG Kew and lead author of the commercialization chapter, told the Guardian that humanity should look to nature for treating coronaviruses and other diseases with pandemic potential. As she put it: "I am absolutely sure going forward that some of the leads for the next generation of drugs in this area will come from plants and fungi."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The report also notes that even though there are at least 7,039 plants that hold potential as foods, "just 15 crop plants contribute to 90% of humanity's energy intake, and more than four billion people rely on just rice, maize, and wheat</b>." As an RBG Kew statement explained, "Relying on a handful of crops to feed the global population has contributed to malnutrition and left us vulnerable to climate change."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stefano Padulosi, co-author of the food chapter, said that "the thousands of underutilized and neglected plant species are the lifeline to millions of people on Earth tormented by unprecedented climate change, pervasive food and nutrition insecurity, and economic disempowerment."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Harnessing this basket of untapped resources for making food and production systems more diverse and resilient to change should be our moral duty to current and future generations," declared Padulosi, former senior scientist at the Alliance of Biodiversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Antonelli agreed, saying broadly that "the data emerging from this year's report paint a picture of a world that has turned its back on the potential of plants and fungi to address fundamental global issues such as food security and climate change. Societies have been too dependent on too few species for too long."</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"At a time of rapid biodiversity loss, we are failing to access the treasure chest of incredible diversity on offer and missing a huge opportunity for our generation," he added. "As we start the most critical decade our planet has ever faced, we hope this report will give the public, businesses, and policymakers the facts they need to demand nature-based solutions that can address the triple threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, and food security."</font></div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sparked by</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">guk 6/20</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://yyy.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/01/sixth-mass-extinction-of-wildlife-accelerating-scientists-warn</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ixth mass extinction of wildlife accelerating, scientists warn</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>Analysis shows 500 species on brink of extinction – as many as were lost over previous century</div><div>
</div><div>The age of extinction is supported by</div><div>About this content</div><div>Damian Carrington Environment editor</div><div>
</div><div> @dpcarrington</div><div>Mon 1 Jun 2020 15.00 EDTLast modified on Mon 1 Jun 2020 15.37 EDT</div><div>Sumatran rhino</div><div> The Sumatran rhino is on the verge of extinction, with fewer than 1,000 individuals left. Photograph: Rhett Buttler/Mongabay/PA</div><div>The sixth mass extinction of wildlife on Earth is accelerating, according to an analysis by scientists who warn it may be a tipping point for the collapse of civilisation.</div><div>
</div><div>More than 500 species of land animals were found to be on the brink of extinction and likely to be lost within 20 years. In comparison, the same number were lost over the whole of the last century. Without the human destruction of nature, even this rate of loss would have taken thousands of years, the scientists said.</div><div>
</div><div>The land vertebrates on the verge of extinction, with fewer than 1,000 individuals left, include the Sumatran rhino, the Clarión wren, the Española giant tortoise and the harlequin frog. Historic data was available for 77 of the species and the scientists found these had lost 94% of their populations.</div><div>
</div><div>The researchers also warned of a domino effect, with the loss of one species tipping others that depend on it over the edge. “Extinction breeds extinctions,” they said, noting that unlike other environmental problems extinction is irreversible.</div><div>
</div><div>Humanity relies on biodiversity for its health and wellbeing, scientists said, with the coronavirus pandemic an extreme example of the dangers of ravaging the natural world. Rising human population, destruction of habitats, the wildlife trade, pollution and the climate crisis must all be urgently tackled, they said.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Human society under urgent threat from loss of Earth's natural life</div><div> Read more</div><div>“When humanity exterminates other creatures, it is sawing off the limb on which it is sitting, destroying working parts of our own life-support system,” said<b> Prof Paul Ehrlich, of Stanford University in the US</b>, and one of the research team. “The conservation of endangered species should be elevated to a global emergency for governments and institutions, equal to the climate disruption to which it is linked.”...</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></div></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(142, 142, 142); font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Jun. 13, 2020</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ajit Niranjan DW</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Civil society groups and public prosecutors in Brazil are taking President Jair Bolsonaro's government to court for failing to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/amazon-brazil-rainforest-bolsonaro-deforestation-fires/a-52242526" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">protect the Amazon rainforest</a>, adding pressure to an administration already under fire for mismanaging the coronavirus pandemic.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lawsuits filed last week challenge the government on two fronts: reducing inspections of exported timber — while demoting the environment agency expert whose team advised against it — and freezing climate funds to preserve forests that other countries also rely on to offset their carbon emissions.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem1" data-id="1" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" data-basename="particle-1" data-post-id="2646172097" data-published-at="1592072164" data-use-pagination="False" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They are among a series of legal challenges that have been launched in Brazil after a tumultuous year-and-a-half of Bolsonaro rule. His administration has overseen a rise in deforestation, attacked the rights of people indigenous to the Amazon and relaxed rules to prevent illegal <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/amazon-deforestation-eu-firms-linked-to-illegal-logging-in-brazil/a-48442226" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">logging</a>, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/mass-deforestation-how-trade-fells-trees-in-brazil-and-indonesia/a-48280649" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">ranching</a> and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazils-amazon-rainforest-has-become-the-wild-west-for-illegal-gold-miners/a-52623368" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">mining</a>.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bolsonaro is a climate change denier who considers the environment to be a kind of enemy, said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of Brazil-based think tank Climate Observatory, which provided the legal analysis behind the lawsuits. "It's very hard to believe Bolsonaro will change his behavior or mindset. What we really need to do is neutralize the attacks on the environment."</font></p></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem2" data-id="2" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" data-basename="particle-2" data-post-id="2646172097" data-published-at="1592072164" data-use-pagination="False"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent weeks, the Brazilian government has been rebuked by foreign governments, investors and businesses for enabling deforestation — and by courts and protestors at home for <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/where-could-brazils-criminal-investigation-of-jair-bolsonaro-lead/a-53284984" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">political interference</a> and its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brazil's supreme court ordered the government on Monday to resume publishing <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/supreme-court-rules-brazil-must-share-virus-data/a-53754069" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">coronavirus statistics</a> after it purged the health ministry website of COVID-19 case numbers and death tolls. The virus has killed more than 37,000 people in Brazil, which has the second-most coronavirus cases in the world behind only the U.S. "The manipulation of statistics is a maneuver of totalitarian regimes," said supreme court judge Gilmar Mendes. "The trick will not exempt responsibility for the eventual genocide."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Deforestation, meanwhile, had already last year hit its highest level since 2008.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">On Tuesday the country's space research agency INPE revised its estimates, saying it they were higher than previously thought. Using satellite data, the scientists calculated that year-on-year <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-reports-even-more-deforestation-after-revising-data/a-53767938" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon</a> rose by 34 percent between August 2018 and July 2019, felling an area of forest about as big as Jamaica.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Georg Witschel, Germany's ambassador to Brazil, told <a href="https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2020/06/11/desmatamento-na-amazonia-faz-cada-vez-mais-dificil-acordo-ue-mercosul-diz-embaixador-alemao.ghtml" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Brazilian news outlet G1</a> on Thursday that deforestation makes it "increasingly difficult" to ratify the free trade agreement between the EU and South American trade bloc Mercosur.</font></p></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem3" data-id="3" data-reload-ads="true" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" data-basename="coronavirus-and-deforestation" data-post-id="2646172097" data-published-at="1592072164" data-use-pagination="False" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 data-role="headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Coronavirus and Deforestation</font></h3><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brazil's environmental and health crises are closely linked. The coronavirus pandemic had given fresh impetus to land grabbers razing swathes of forests as lockdowns have kept law enforcement officers at home.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, the fires that typically follow the felling of trees could further strain health systems.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Blazing wildfires, like the ones that devastated the Amazon last year, spout pollutants that lower air quality and work their way into people's lungs, exacerbating the same <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-air-pollution-might-raise-risk-of-fatality/a-52977422" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">breathing diseases</a> that leave people more vulnerable to the coronavirus.</b> A joint peak in forest fires and COVID-19 cases could overwhelm hospitals without "incisive intervention by the State to curb illegal acts," according to a report published in May by INPE.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That could collapse health systems in several Amazonian states that are already operating at the limit, the authors wrote. "If the turning point of the epidemiological curve of COVID-19 does not occur immediately, in May 2020, there will certainly be an overlap of fires with the pandemic."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This could spell disaster for indigenous peoples and uncontacted tribes, said Sarah Shenker, a campaigner with Survival International. "In Brazil, there are more than 100 uncontacted tribes and they could be wiped out if invaders are not removed from their territory."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even before the current coronavirus crisis, scientists warned that <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/how-deforestation-can-lead-to-more-infectious-diseases/a-53282244" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">forest loss makes pandemics more likely</a> by increasing the chance that diseases jump from animals to humans. A study published in the journal PNAS in October found that deforestation of the Amazon significantly increases transmission of malaria, a different type of disease.</font></p></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem4" data-id="4" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" data-basename="preserving-the-climate" data-post-id="2646172097" data-published-at="1592072164" data-use-pagination="False"><h3 data-role="headline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Preserving the Climate</font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Amazon rainforest — 60 percent of which lies in Brazil — is one of the world's great carbon sinks. Preserving its trees and plants is crucial to meeting international targets that <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/co2-emissions-gap-un-report-warns-of-collective-failure-to-act/a-51407286" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">limit global warming</a> to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels</b>.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Lawsuits that take years to complete are not going to produce results fast enough, said Ricardo Galvao, a former director of INPE who was <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazils-research-chief-sacked-after-deforestation-row-with-bolsonaro/a-49874119" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">fired by Bolsonaro</a> in August.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">To curb deforestation in the Amazon, said Galvao, the best tools are "positive actions that show [that] exploring the forest, rather than destroying it, gives economic returns." For instance, international organizations like the UN could certify products from sustainably managed forests and countries could lower import taxes on such "green-stamped" goods.</font></p></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem5" data-id="5" data-reload-ads="true" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html?rebelltitem=5#rebelltitem5" data-basename="particle-5" data-post-id="2646172097" data-published-at="1592072164" data-use-pagination="False"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Brazil has a legal commitment to reduce deforestation in the Amazon to a rate equivalent to about 3,900 square kilometers per year from 2020 onwards. In 2012, measures to protect the Amazon had brought deforestation down to 4,600 square kilometers, close to the target, but by 2019, it had rebounded to 9,800 square kilometers.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Brazilian government, which in May brought in the military to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-deploys-military-to-protect-amazon-rainforest/a-53398270" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">protect the forest</a>, has disputed its image as an environmental pariah. "We are the country that most preserves the environment in the world," said Bolsonaro on World Environment Day last week. "Unjustly, [we are] the most attacked.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Data from Brazil's Institute of Socioeconomic Studies show government spending on forest inspection dropped from R$17.4 million (US$3.5 million, €3.1 million) to R$5.3 million from the first five months of 2019 to the same period in 2020, while funding for activities under Brazil's national climate change plan were cut from R$436 million last year to R$247 million this year.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ibama, the Brazilian environment agency, did not respond to a request for comment.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Big tracts of the rainforest have no recorded owner, making it easier to illegally grab land, and a lack of law enforcement can even mean that farmers who comply with regulations struggle to compete with those who don't.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Working with sustainable farmers and fixing land ownership structures could help Brazil slow deforestation during the coronavirus pandemic and recession, said Monica De Los Rios, Brazil coordinator at the nonprofit Earth Innovation Institute. "This is the most critical moment in the history of the Amazon."</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div>
<div><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/pandemics-environmental-destruction-2645854694.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/pandemics-environmental-destruction-2645854694.html</a></div><div><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-wildlife--ecosystem-destruction-2645713976.html" aria-label="Coronavirus Pandemic Linked to Destruction of Wildlife and World's Ecosystems" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Coronavirus Pandemic Linked to Destruction of Wildlife and World's Ecosystems</font></a></h1></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-wildlife--ecosystem-destruction-2645713976.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-wildlife--ecosystem-destruction-2645713976.html</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">from DW</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="widgetbrief"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Charli Shield</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After the novel coronavirus broke out in Wuhan, China in late December 2019, it <b>didn't take long for conspiracy theorists to claim it was manufactured in a nearby lab.</b></font></p></div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="transition: all 350ms ease 0s; height: auto; overflow: hidden; opacity: 1;"><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem1" data-id="1" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-wildlife--ecosystem-destruction-2645713976.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" data-basename="particle-1" data-post-id="2645713976"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Scientific consensus, on the other hand, is that the virus — SARS-CoV-2 — <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">is a zoonotic disease</a> that jumped from animal to human. It <b>most likely <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.2736" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">originated in a bat</a>, possibly before passing through another mammal.</b></span>
</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">While the virus was certainly not engineered in a laboratory, this doesn't mean we haven't played a role in the current pandemic. Human impingement on natural habitats, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are making virus spillover events much more likely, a <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.2736" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">major new study</a> from scientists in Australia and the US has found.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The number of emerging infectious disease outbreaks has more than tripled <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsif.2014.0950#RSIF20140950F1" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">every decade since the 1980s</a>. More than two thirds of these diseases originate in animals, and about <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature06536" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">70% of those come from wild animals</a>. Many of the infectious diseases we're familiar with — Ebola, HIV, swine and avian flu — are zoonotic.</font></p></div><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem2" data-id="2" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-wildlife--ecosystem-destruction-2645713976.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" data-basename="particle-2" data-post-id="2645713976"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Aided by a hyper-connected global population, SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes, COVID-19, has also demonstrated how quickly modern outbreaks can become pandemics.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While the speed at which COVID-19 has spread across the world has shocked many, scientists have long been <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2176051/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">warning</a> of such a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/nsr/article/4/3/493/3789515" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">pandemic</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">By disrupting ecosystems, we have created the conditions that allow animal viruses to cross over into human populations</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, says Joachim Spangenberg, ecologist and vice-president of the <b>Sustainable Europe Research Institute.</b></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">"We are creating this situation, not the animals," Spangenberg told DW.</font></p></div><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem3" data-id="3" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-wildlife--ecosystem-destruction-2645713976.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" data-basename="deforestation-habitat-encroachment" data-post-id="2645713976"><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Deforestation, habitat encroachment</font></h3><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As people move further into the territories of wild animals to clear forests, raise livestock, hunt and extract resources, we are increasingly exposed to the pathogens that normally never leave these places and the bodies they inhabit.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">"We're getting closer and closer to wild animals," says Yan Xiang, professor of virology at the University of Texas Health Science Center, "and that brings us into contact with these viruses."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">"As you increase human population density and increase encroachment onto natural habitats, not just by people but by our domesticated animals, you're increasing the rolls on the die," David Hayman, professor of infectious disease ecology at Massey University in New Zealand, told DW.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">But, as well as increasing the likelihood of transfer, ecosystem disruption also has an impact on how many viruses exist in the wild and how they behave.</font></p></div><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem4" data-id="4" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-wildlife--ecosystem-destruction-2645713976.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" data-basename="particle-4" data-post-id="2645713976"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">In the last century,<b> tropical forests</b>, home to around two thirds of the world's living organisms, <a href="https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/planet-earth/forests-and-deserts/rate-of-deforestation" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">have been halved</a>. This profound loss of habitat has ripple effects throughout the entire ecosystem, including on the "parts we tend to forget — infections," says Hayman.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">In some cases, scientists have observed that when animals at the top of the food chain disappear, the animals at the bottom of the food chain, like rats and mice that carry more pathogens, tend to fill that space</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><b>"It's not just about how many species we have in an ecosystem," says Alice Latinne at the Wildlife Conservation Society, "it's about which species."</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">"Each species plays a different role in the ecosystem and sometimes, if you just replace one species with another, this can have a huge impact in terms of disease risk. And sometimes we can't predict it," she told DW.</font></p></div><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem5" data-id="5" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-wildlife--ecosystem-destruction-2645713976.html?rebelltitem=5#rebelltitem5" data-basename="particle-5" data-post-id="2645713976" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><b>Habitat changes can also force animals — and their pathogens — to go elsewhere, including areas populated by people.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Latinne draws on the example of the emergence of Nipah virus in Malaysia in the late 1990s, where deforestation drove fruit bats from their forest habitat to mango trees on pig farms. Bats often carry pathogens that don't bother them, but in this case when the pigs came into contact with bat droppings and saliva, they became infected. The pigs then went on to infect farmers.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Evidence linking disruption of ecosystems to increased risk of novel infection transfer is why, Spangenberg says, experts talk about the importance of the "One Health" concept; the idea that the health of animals, the ecosystem and humans are all interlinked, and when one is out of balance, others follow suit.</font></p></div><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem6" data-id="6" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-wildlife--ecosystem-destruction-2645713976.html?rebelltitem=6#rebelltitem6" data-basename="wildlife-trade" data-post-id="2645713976"><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Wildlife trade</font></h3><div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url css-listicle-body-2645713976 expanded" data-elid="2645713976" data-post-url="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-wildlife--ecosystem-destruction-2645713976.html" data-authors="Deutsche Welle" data-headline="Coronavirus Pandemic Linked to Destruction of Wildlife and World's Ecosystems" style="margin-top: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><div class="body-description" style="clear: both;"><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="transition: all 350ms ease 0s; height: auto; overflow: hidden; opacity: 1;"><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem6" data-id="6" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-wildlife--ecosystem-destruction-2645713976.html?rebelltitem=6#rebelltitem6" data-basename="wildlife-trade" data-post-id="2645713976"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">So-called "wet markets" selling produce, meat and live animals provide another incubator for the emergence of infectious disease</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Scientists </span><a href="https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0092-8674%2820%2930328-7" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">believe</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> there's a strong possibility SARS-CoV-2 emerged at a wet market in Wuhan, China.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Cramming stressed, sick animals into cages together is, in many ways, the "perfect setting" to incubate new pathogens, Spangenberg says, and "an excellent way to transfer diseases from one species to another." For that reason, many scientists, including Spangenberg, say the world needs, at the very least, to introduce strict regulations for live animal markets.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">That's the message from Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the United Nations' biodiversity chief, who has called for a global ban on wildlife markets.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">But as Mrema also pointed out, millions of people — particularly in low-income communities — rely on the food and income sources these markets provide.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">That's part of what makes solutions to preventing disease outbreak complex, according to Hayman. Animal exploitation is one part of it, he says. But "poverty, access to jobs, how people are treated in remote areas, the way people engage with food" also contribute to conditions that lead to spillovers.</font></p></div><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem7" data-id="7" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-wildlife--ecosystem-destruction-2645713976.html?rebelltitem=7#rebelltitem7" data-basename="particle-7" data-post-id="2645713976" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Even just on an economic level, Latinne believes, "we will be forced to change — because the cost of disease emergence and spillover from wildlife will be much higher than the economic benefit of our exploitation of the environment."</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">"We are part of nature — we're part of the ecosystem where our health is linked to the health of wildlife, the health of livestock and the health of the environment," Latinne says. "We have to find a better way to live together safely."</font></p></div><p class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-pandemic-linked-to-destruction-of-wildlife-and-worlds-ecosystems/a-53078480?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">Deutsche Welle</a>.</font><a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/environment" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" line-height="line-height" border-radius="border-radius" border="border" solid="solid" rgb="rgb" padding="padding">environment</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" line-height="line-height" border-radius="border-radius" border="border" solid="solid" rgb="rgb" padding="padding">coronavirus</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" line-height="line-height" border-radius="border-radius" border="border" solid="solid" rgb="rgb" padding="padding">biodiversity</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/health" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" line-height="line-height" border-radius="border-radius" border="border" solid="solid" rgb="rgb" padding="padding">health</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/china" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" line-height="line-height" border-radius="border-radius" border="border" solid="solid" rgb="rgb" padding="padding">china</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" line-height="line-height" border-radius="border-radius" border="border" solid="solid" rgb="rgb" padding="padding">wildlife</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" line-height="line-height" border-radius="border-radius" border="border" solid="solid" rgb="rgb" padding="padding">deforestation</a></p></div></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/4/27/headlines/insect_populations_plummet_amid_urbanization_and_deforestation" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.democracynow.org/2020/4/27/headlines/insect_populations_plummet_amid_urbanization_and_deforestation</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div></div>