Page 106 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

is where the pathogens and viruses at the origin of new diseases
in humans such as dengue, Ebola and HIV could be found. Today,

we know this is wrong because the causation goes the other way.
As David Quammen, author of Spillover: Animal Infections and the
Next Human Pandemic, argues: “We invade tropical forests and
other wild landscapes, which harbor so many species of animals

and plants – and within those creatures, so many unknown
viruses. We cut the trees; we kill the animals or cage them and
send them to markets. We disrupt ecosystems, and we shake
viruses loose from their natural hosts. When that happens, they

need a new host. Often, we are it.” [104] By now, an increasing
number of scientists have shown that it is in fact the destruction of
biodiversity caused by humans that is the source of new viruses
like COVID-19. These researchers have coalesced around the

new discipline of “planetary health” that studies the subtle and
complex connections that exist between the well-being of humans,
other living species and entire ecosystems, and their findings

have made it clear that the destruction of biodiversity will increase
the number of pandemics.

In a recent letter to the US Congress, 100 wildlife and
environmental groups estimate that zoonotic diseases have
quadrupled over the past 50 years. [105] Since 1970, land-use

changes have had the largest relative negative impact on nature
(and in the process caused a quarter of man-made emissions).
Agriculture alone covers more than one-third of the terrestrial land
surface and is the economic activity that disrupts nature the most.

A recent academic review concludes that agriculture drivers are
associated with more than 50% of zoonotic diseases. [106] As
human activities like agriculture (with many others like mining,
logging or tourism) encroach on natural ecosystems, they break

down the barriers between human populations and animals,
creating the conditions for infectious diseases to emerge by
spilling from animals to humans. The loss of animals’ natural

habitat and the wildlife trade are particularly relevant because
when animals known as being linked to particular diseases (like
bats and pangolins with the coronavirus) are taken out of the wild
and moved into cities, a wildlife disease reservoir is simply

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