Humans Have Themselves to Blame for Covid-19
Our unchecked intrusion of nature and wildlife habitats brings us in ever-closer contact with animal-borne pathogens such as the novel coronavirus.
This white-bellied pangolin was rescued from animal traffickers.
Photographer: Isaac Kasamani/AFP via Getty Images
No one could have predicted the timing and trajectory of the Covid-19 pandemic, triggered by a novel coronavirus leaping from a bat into a pangolin (apparently) and from there into a person. Even so, scientists knew that a pandemic of some kind would come our way sooner or later. In the past few decades, we've seen ever-more-frequent outbreaks of new infectious diseases, as viruses or bacteria hop from their usual animal hosts into people. After this virus, there will be others.
Outbreaks are becoming more frequent for a very simple reason: There are more people coming into contact with wildlife species, as agriculture, forestry, mining and oil exploration activities have pushed into previously unpopulated areas, destroying animals' natural habitats. The high-risk zones for new infections turn out to lie mostly in tropical regions — where biodiversity is high — undergoing significant land-use change.