One Health in an Age of Climate Change Extinctions and a Pandemic

[Music]

you may be feeling how i

am and i’m feeling tired covered tired

i feel anxious about whether those i

love will get sick or whether

i will get sick whether i or my family

and friends will have a job or

my son will handle learning in his

virtual classroom in our house

this all makes me tired however i am

also

strangely energized even during this

public health crisis in which

untold suffering and loss has impacted

communities around the world

there is some good as we talk about

flattening the curve social distancing

and who is wearing the best face mask

the world is waking up to the concept of

one health

if covin has taught us anything it is

that our human health is dependent

on the health of other species there

truly is only one health

and the health of human and non-human

animals and ecosystems are all connected

this growing understanding gives me hope

but make no mistake

we are in the middle of a global health

crisis

crisis is the perfect word for this

pandemic

did you know that the word crisis comes

from the latinized form of the greek for

crisis

a crisis is the turning point in a

disease

the moment a patient can get better or

worse

live or die so here we are in a global

health crisis

the question is whether the collective

we will get better or worse

live or die but to fully understand the

prognosis

is it’s important to understand how a

patient became sick in the first place

how did we get here many people say we

couldn’t have seen

this coronavirus pandemic coming but the

warning signs have been there for years

and many scientists and conservationists

have been talking about an event such as

covid19 for decades

those of us that work on the front line

of understanding diseases

shared between human and non-human

animals these zoonotic diseases

we were not surprised by this pandemic

we even predicted the possibility

of a covid19 type event but here we are

with nearly a million human deaths from

a virus that began in a non-human animal

a virus that moved from an animal host

to a human

spilled over an epidemiological parlance

a virus that once in a human host was

able to become

incredibly human adapted so it could

move human to human

to human but how did it actually move

from an animal to a human

this is the trillion dollar question

this pandemic started at a live animal

market also called

called wet markets these are places

where animals both living and dead

domestic and wild are often housed

together

under crowded unhygienic and stressful

conditions

there they stay waiting to be sold for

human consumption

in these markets infectious agents may

easily move

between animals as they are breathing

and urinating and defecating in the same

space

and even are often slaughtered on site

all this mixing allows infectious agents

to reassort and mutate

to change their ability to be

transmitted between

and within species and to even change

their ability to make an

individual sick sick but let’s be honest

covet is not the only crisis in town

2020 is not just the year of pandemics

climate change continues unchecked with

record-breaking heat waves and wildfires

around the world

remember australia a few months ago that

was 2020

or california oregon and washington

state right now

and one of the animals lost because of

climate change

and the australian wildfires alone

billions of animals died

the loss of non-human species isn’t just

because of climate change

since january 1st 2020

it is estimated that 39 900 species have

gone extinct

extinct meaning no more

now in september 2020 with a third of

the year remaining

in our whole lives after that where do

we go from here

i am optimistic that these three major

planetary ills of climate change

the loss of non-human species and even a

global viral pandemic have

made humanity wake up it has made us

realize

that now is the time to turn our coveted

fatigue

into one health action with this growing

awareness that we are in a planetary

health crisis

we know that we must take action to get

past this historical moment

we will get to the other side of this

pandemic but we must follow this science

we can do this 2020 is a threshold year

we are awake but what will we do now

abe lincoln is credited with the

statement that the only way to predict

the future

is to create it we must create a

post-pandemic future

in which we don’t continue to destroy

the animals and plants and ecosystems

that humans need for survival

and health our past actions have created

2020 to be the year of climate change

species loss and yes even a global human

pandemic

we created this year of planetary

sickness

so now let’s create the future just as

this global pandemic was predictable by

many of us

the future is also predictable if we are

ready to create it

2020 can be a threshold year for good

the year that a one health approach of

people working together

for the health of environments animals

and humans

is put into action to overcome the

challenges of today and prevent them

from becoming even

bigger challenges tomorrow two years ago

i gave a talk on the same platform

where i warned of a coming planetary

heart attack

in 2018 we were like the human patient

who doesn’t take the warnings her doctor

has said of a heart attack

if she continues with her current

lifestyle even as the signs add up

a tingling in the arm shortness of

breath weight loss

nausea fatigue now in 2020 we are smack

in the middle of a planetary heart

attack

the symptoms are all there wildfires

moving across countries

the extinction of non-human species at a

rate night

not seen since dinosaurs went extinct

and yes

even a global pandemic a human pandemic

that came from our

unbalanced relationship with other

animals we shouldn’t blame

bats or pangolins the probable original

host

from which sars covid ii the virus that

causes covid19

what we should do is reevaluate our

relationship with bats and pangolins and

other non-human animals and with the

environments that sustain

all life and yes even with each other

we will get to the other side of this

pandemic it will take resilience to

recover

to come back stronger than we were

before

stronger and smarter i hope if we

realize how our

everyday actions can and do impact human

health

animal health and even environmental

health

what will you do to create the future

days or weeks from now when you think

back on this subject i want you to ask

yourself what am i doing to change

things are you better educated on how

2020 became the year of a pandemic

undeniable climate change impacts and

the loss of biodiversity

better yet are you educating others on

the global prices and

on ways each of us can minimize our

global footprint

simple measures that we can each take

such as decreasing

animal protein consumption or simply

shopping local

or better yet shopping less have you

picked your top global crisis

and and there are many to choose from

and found ways to

minimize the impacts on things such as

climate change

and future zoonotic events

make no mistake we are experiencing a

planetary heart attack

we are in a global crisis the symptoms

are upon us

the prognosis is up to all of us you

and me will we get better or worse

will we in fact live or die

you