⁍ Outbreaks of influenza viruses and new pandemic strains have emerged largely because of ‘incredibly dense production of poultry and pigs’
Pandemics will emerge more often, spread faster, cost more and kill more people than COVID-19 without bold action to halt the habitat destruction that helps viruses hop from wildlife to humans.

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⁍ Study warned that pandemics will emerge more often, spread faster, cost more and kill more people than COVID-19 without bold action to halt the habitat destruction that helps viruses hop from wildlife to humans.

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– Pandemics like 2009’s H1N1 are largely due to human consumption of meat, which is “bad for our health. It’s unsustainable in terms of environmental impact. It’s also a driver of pandemic risk,” Peter Daszak, a zoologist and chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, tells the Thomson Reuters Foundation. That’s why, he says, governments should consider a tax on livestock production and consumption to help protect the planet. “There’s a new generation out there who are willing to make those personal decisions that will lead to a more sustainable lifestyle—and we’re hoping that’s going to save our planet in terms of biodiversity loss, climate change, and pandemic risk,” Daszak says. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, which has more than 130 member states, warns that the destruction of the rainforest in Brazil and other Amazon countries is contributing to climate change, and that diseases like tick-borne encephalitis are spreading because of it. “The future impact of climate change on emerging disease is likely to be very significant,” says Daszak. “Climate change will cause shifts in geographic range of different species, livestock, and people … and that will spread diseases more effectively.”