'We did it to ourselves': scientist says intrusion into nature led to pandemic
The vast illegal
wildlife trade and humanity’s excessive intrusion into nature is to blame for
the coronavirus pandemic, according to a leading US scientist who says “this is
not nature’s revenge, we did it to ourselves”. Scientists are
discovering two to four new viruses are created every year as a result of human
infringement on the natural world, and any one of those could turn into a
pandemic, according to Thomas Lovejoy, who coined the term “biological
diversity” in 1980 and is often referred to as the godfather of biodiversity.
“This pandemic is the
consequence of our persistent and excessive intrusion in nature and the vast
illegal wildlife trade, and in particular, the wildlife markets, the wet
markets, of south Asia and bush meat markets of Africa… It’s pretty obvious, it
was just a matter of time before something like this was going to happen,” said
Lovejoy, a senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation and professor of
environment science at George Mason University.
His comments were made
to mark the release of a report by the Center for American Progress arguing
that the US should step up efforts to combat the wildlife trade to help
confront pandemics. Wet markets are
traditional markets selling live animals (farmed and wild) as well as fresh
fruit, vegetables and fish, often in unhygienic conditions. They are found all
over Africa and Asia, providing sustenance for hundreds of millions of people.
The wet market in Wuhan believed to be the source of Covid-19 contained a
number of wild animals, including foxes, rats, squirrels, wolf pups and
salamanders....
