<
https://theconversation.com/eating-less-food-from-animal-sources-is-key-to-reducing-the-risk-of-wildlife-origin-diseases-and-global-warming-185610>
"The world is at greater risk of infectious diseases that originate in wildlife
because people are encroaching on tropical areas of wilderness to feed
livestock and hunt wild animals.
Tropical deforestation and over-hunting are also at the root of global warming
and mass species extinction.
Devastating pandemics like HIV/AIDS, Ebola and COVID-19 are likely to have
originated in wildlife. This serves as a reminder of how human impacts on the
environment interlink with disease as well as with climate change and
biodiversity loss.
Food, then, is one key to solving a lot of problems.
We recently conducted a thorough review of the scientific literature to explore
whether outbreaks of infectious diseases originating in wildlife could be
linked to ecosystem degradation caused by the global food system.
The review revealed two ways to tackle the interrelated crises of
wildlife-origin diseases, global warming and mass species extinction. The first
is a global transition to more plant-based diets, so as to limit agricultural
encroachment on tropical wildlands. The second is to curb demand for wild meat
in tropical cities."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
