Wildlife trade, for example in pangolins, is one area of concern for causing zoonotic disease outbreaks. Credit: Frendi Apen Irawan/Wikimedia
As the world looks to a future after COVID-19, experts are urging governments to concentrate on preventing viruses from spilling over into humans. But this takes cross-departmental co-ordination, bringing together the needs of people, animals and our planet. Catherine Early reports on the policy challenges and the ‘one health’ approach
The word “unprecedented” has been used widely in the past year, as waves of the health and economic crisis caused by COVID-19 surged around the globe. But while it may have been unprecedented, the pandemic was not unexpected – coming as little surprise to scientists who had been studying the rise of zoonotic disease outbreaks in recent years.
Climate News
Carbon Tax: What is it and who is calling for the federal government to implement one?
The idea of a federal carbon tax has been thrown around in academic and policy circles for decades. As the Biden administration formulates their climate agenda, pushes for a tax on carbon to be included have grown.
INA FASSBENDER
AFP
increase in the number of severe natural disasters;
from wildfires to hurricanes, droughts, and flooding, seeing images of houses and entire communities destroyed is becoming
normal occurrences.
In 2018, under President Trump, the US government released the National Climate Assessment which stated that “
Reporting from Baihuashan Nature Reserve, China
Wang Zhan drives three hours out of Beijing’s smog, past gray-brick towns and yellowed hills to reach a place where he can hear birds.
The Baihuashan National Nature Reserve, a rare sanctuary of pine trees and unobstructed views just west of the capital, is one of China’s more successful attempts to preserve its dwindling natural resources. Signs encourage people to stay on the trails and off the “wild mountains.” Garbage actually lands in the bin.
China has no single agency responsible for managing its overcrowded, haphazard assortment of natural areas, places that are suddenly in demand by a growing middle class looking for refuge from polluted cities.
But climate change is not the only global environmental threat that demands attention. Scientists widely agree that loss of wildlife and the natural environment is an equally urgent crisis. Some argue that biodiversity loss threatens to become Earth’s sixth mass extinction. But unlike efforts to fight climate change – which center on clear, measurable goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – there is no globally accepted metric for saving biodiversity.
As an expert on budgeting and public finance, I know that governments and private businesses alike pay much more attention to resources when they have a well-defined price tag. I believe that overhauling society’s concept of wealth to include “natural capital” – the value nature provides to humans – is a critical step for slowing and reversing the loss of precious ecosytems.
SME tech saves seabirds from death: Ben and Pete Kibel named European Inventor Award 2021 finalists
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British brothers nominated for European Patent Office (EPO) prize for their device that reduces accidental seabird deaths in longline fishing
Pressure-sensitive pod covers hooks at the sea surface but opens when bait sinks to depth of 20 metres
In trials, the technology cut seabird deaths by 95% without reducing catch rates
Munich, 4 May 2021 – The European Patent Office (EPO) announces that British brothers Ben and Pete Kibel have been nominated as finalists in the “SMEs” category of the European Inventor Award 2021 for their invention of a simple, low-cost device that prevents the accidental deaths of seabirds during longline fishing.