6 March 2021 | New Scientist | 5WE MAY never know for certain how the
SARS-CoV-2 virus jumped from another
animal to a human before upending
our world. Getting a convincing answer
will take some time, judging by the first
results from a World Health Organization
investigation into the origins of the
new coronavirus. The WHO team served
up more questions than answers at a
press conference last month, ruling out
a lab origin, but calling for more research
into the possibility that it was carried
via frozen food.
Most virologists regard that as
unlikely. The most plausible route
seems to be that the virus originated in
a bat, as the closely related SARS-CoV-
virus, which causes SARS, did two
decades ago, and spread from there
to people via an unidentified species.In a sense, the details don’t matter.
We know enough to say that, even though
these deadly pathogens originate in
nature, they aren’t a problem created by
nature. Unbridled human consumption
driving ecosystem destruction, the
degradation of habitats changing the
balance of species and the way we bringspecies unnaturally close to one another
in the wildlife trade all increase the risk
of “zoonotic” diseases that jump from
species to species (see page 41).
The staggering economic cost of the
covid-19 pandemic – a hit to global output
estimated by the International MonetaryFund at $28 trillion – should be reason
enough to convince even the hardest-
nosed market acolyte that cleaning
up our act is a matter of economic
self-interest: not a cost, but an essential
investment to safeguard our future.
The pandemic is just one reason among
many. The scary pace of biodiversity loss
is already hurting economies as we pay
more for, or no longer receive, ecosystem
services that nature once provided for
free, from clean air and water to fertile
soils. Tackling the climate crisis, too, will
be almost impossible without preserving
and restoring nature. Reforestation alone
could absorb about 14 per cent of annual
global carbon dioxide emissions.
We don’t have all the answers yet,
but we don’t need them to know
when it is prudent to act. ❚Counting the cost
The covid-19 pandemic makes plain the consequences of abusing nature
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“ We know enough to say that
these deadly pathogens aren’t
a problem created by nature”EDITORIAL
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