Climate change, species extinction and deadly diseases fuel each other. It is high time to redirect. One thing is certain: the next pandemic will come. If mankind is unlucky, it will be far more deadly than the corona wave. I never thought I’d be a fortune teller a little bit. I know now. From 2008 to 2010, together with colleagues like the biologist Joachim Spangenberg, I published various scenarios of how the loss of biological diversity could affect humanity. Our direst forecast was of a pandemic spiraling out of control. It was a bit like a Hollywood thriller. When I reread the work in preparation for my book “The Triple Crisis” after ages, I was shocked at how close we came to reality in our worst-case scenario: tens of thousands died in Europe, hospitals were overcrowded, people to Isolation forced and economies largely collapsed.

No. 1 cause of death in East Africa Climate change increases the risk of malaria in Europe

Now we are experiencing exactly that: A virus that made it from animals to humans brings suffering to the entire world and causes serious economic and social damage. The hope that nature will recover from the Corona standstill has largely been dashed. The most recent fires in Australia and in the Amazon show that the destruction of the blue planet, mainly caused by humans, continues unchecked. It is the highest railway to change the track. The world is faced with the task of mastering three unprecedented challenges at the same time: species decline, climate change and the increasing risk of pandemics. The three components of the triple crisis are mutually dependent and fuel one another, their interactions are devastating. Scientifically proven is a close connection between the increase in severe epidemics or even pandemics and the destruction of the environment, including the decline of countless species.

Deforestation of the Amazon in Brazil The destruction of the “green lung” is making massive progress

The more man penetrates and cannibalizes nature that has been untouched until then, the more viral diseases jump over to him. After deforestation and slash and burn in Asia or the Amazon as well as fires like 2020 in Australia, Siberia and the western USA, the habitat for animals is decreasing. Few of them will survive and take control, so to speak. If the density of a certain animal species increases, it can more easily lead to a transmission of viruses and thus higher infection rates among each other. Animals cope with pathogens that only circulate within their species, usually very well in nature, but not closely kept farm animals – just think of mink farms and swine fever – and certainly not Homo sapiens. Since viruses are extremely adaptable, it is only a matter of time before one or the other pathogen has assumed a form that is dangerous for humans. At the same time, the destruction of nature leads to the loss of buffer zones between wilderness and civilization, for example through settlement or conversion of natural areas into agricultural land.

Denmark kills 17 million animals Minks transmit mutated coronavirus

Covid-19 is by no means the first infectious disease to get from animals to humans. Zoonoses, as the scientific term for this phenomenon is called, gave rise to malaria, AIDS, Ebola, Mers and Sars (Covid) and various forms of flu. We were still somewhat lucky with the transferability and lifespan of the viruses. I don’t even want to imagine what the next pandemic or the one after that will look like. But I guarantee you: The coronavirus that brought us Covid-19 is harmless to what is still waiting for us humans in the jungle. Climate change is making it possible for mosquito, hornet and tick species to settle in regions where they would not have survived winter until now. Europe is thus exposed to diseases that previously brought vacationers from distant countries. For a decade now, mosquito species that carry dangerous viruses have become increasingly native to Germany and other European countries. Anyone who is bitten by the Asian tiger mosquito can develop dengue, chikungunya or Zika fever. There is no hope of getting rid of them in the face of global warming.

As co-chair of the global report of the World Council on Biodiversity, I and my colleagues around the world have evaluated tens of thousands of studies by scientists on every continent on the state of the world. They left one single conclusion: He is pathetic. Intact nature disappears at an unprecedented speed. We are destroying the basis of our prosperity, our economies, livelihoods and quality of living. Humans exploit natural resources everywhere without thinking about tomorrow or even the day after tomorrow. We have to answer the question: Do we define our prosperity in terms of constantly increasing economic figures or in terms of quality of life? Are fast cars and unbridled consumption more important to us than health thanks to unspoilt nature? I am not in favor of total renunciation. The measure has to be right. I believe in common sense and scientific progress. These days I have been saying it over and over again in interviews, how much I can understand that nobody likes to hear the hackneyed sentence “We only have this one world”. But he’s true as always. Let us keep the earth together. Neither corporations nor farmers have an interest in destroying the planet. I hope that I have succeeded in making a contribution on this with my decades of research, perhaps also a little with my book, which, like this guest article, ends with the appeal: Help us to preserve the blue planet!

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