Biosecurity leaders and Nobel prize winner Peter Doherty are lobbying the federal government to reduce the risk of animal-borne diseases caused by environmental degradation and climate change.
A group of former chief veterinary officers and senior government advisers have asked for renewed action to limit greenhouse gas emissions and have warned that a repeat of the COVID-19 pandemic could come about from the damage to natural ecosystems and increased contact between humans and animals carrying potentially deadly pathogens.
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| Peter Doherty: "The consequences stretch right across the wellbeing equation of animals and humans." Arsineh Houspian |
Professor Doherty, a leading immunologist and medical researcher, said governments should listen to the advice of scientific experts, including on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to a net-zero level by 2050.
"You've got a key driver in the accumulation of greenhouse gases, and then the consequences stretch right across the wellbeing equation of animals and humans," he said.
"We're starting to see groups like the National Farmers Federation coming in, with the livestock industry and now a group of chief veterinary officers saying we need to act on this. None of these people are on the left of politics and they're all deeply embedded in practical issues."
Source of viral diseases
Former Australian inspector-general of biosecurity Helen Scott-Orr said climate change was causing a range of diseases to appear for the first time in animal species, posing a risk to Australian agriculture and industry.
"Animals which previously had less contact with people spread diseases they may have carried harmlessly for millennia. Animals such as bats have been the source of viral diseases and it is very likely they were the source of COVID," she said.
"The closest relative of COVID-19 is found in horseshoe bats in southern China and also in south-east Asia. There are other closely related viruses found in animals such as the pangolin, sold at wildlife wet markets such as you had in Wuhan."
The letter to Mr Morrison said increased contact between humans and animal reservoirs of pathogens could lead to future biosecurity emergencies and economic damage.
The group called for scientific expertise to guide climate policy, as medical advice had led the pandemic response.
"It is now apparent that global warming is one of the key drivers of changes in disease distribution and emergence of new, potentially dangerous diseases, as well as increasingly severe extreme weather," the letter, signed by 18 biosecurity experts, said.
"During our times of service, we witnessed the changing distribution of pests and diseases affecting Australia’s land-based and marine animals as climate zones began to shift. Like all Australians, we were also shocked by the devastating effects of this past summer’s massive bushfires.
"We believe that sustained and urgent action based on the best available science and technology can reverse our current trajectory towards unsustainable and irreversible changes in climate."
Links
- Climate change and human health
- Q&A: Could climate change and biodiversity loss raise the risk of pandemics?
- Potential Impact of Climate Change on Pandemic Influenza Risk
- How Climate Change Is Contributing to Skyrocketing Rates of Infectious Disease
- Ignoring Link Between Climate Change And Increasing Threat Of Pandemics Is ‘Dangerous,’ Scientists Say
- How deadly disease outbreaks could worsen as the climate changes
- The wicked problems of pandemics and climate change
- Redirect military budgets to tackle climate change and pandemics
- Fighting infectious diseases: The connection to climate change
- How climate change could expose new epidemics
- Dispatch From 2030: What a Global Pandemic Taught Us About Tackling Climate Change
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