News from the Natural World: We’ll stop unleashing Zoonotic Diseases when you stop destroying the natural world – declare the Animals.
The animal world has issued an alarming ultimatum to the human race. They have declared that they have no other choice. They’ve watched on as humans have slaughtered their kind for hundreds of years. The human evolution from hunter-gatherers to farmers to industrial slaughterers and now ecological harbingers of doom has been dramatic, to say the least. So the animals have gathered and made a declaration. They will be forced to continue unleashing Zoonotic Diseases. But what are Zoonotic Diseases?
About 60% of all human diseases and 75% of all emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, according to the researchers. Most human infections with zoonoses come from livestock, including pigs, chickens, cattle, goats, sheep and camels. This is often through media such as air (influenza) or through bites and saliva (rabies). However, in contrast, transmission can also occur via an intermediate species (referred to as a vector), which carry the disease pathogen without getting sick. In the last few years, the human world has seen SARS, MERS, EBOLA and many other Zoonotic Diseases. With Covid-19 the animals thought that humans would finally understand. They couldn’t keep on destroying the natural world because they would bring about their own demise. But the animals watched on in horror as the humans blamed every single other cause rather than themselves.
We’ll Stop Unleashing Zoonotic Diseases When You Stop Destroying The Natural World
But are the animals justified in their threat? Well yes. Around 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction. Many within decades, more than ever before in human history. The average abundance of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%, mostly since 1900. More than 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reef-forming corals and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened. The picture is less clear for insect species. Available evidence supports a tentative estimate of 10% being threatened. At least 680 vertebrate species had been driven to extinction since the 16th century. More than 9% of all domesticated breeds of mammals used for food and agriculture had become extinct by 2016, with at least 1,000 more breeds still threatened.