Being Green - 08 May 2020

Four of the world’s leading biodiversity experts have warned that we need to stop destroying nature or face deadlier and more frequent pandemics that inflict even worse economic damage. They say human activities such as deforestation, intensive farming, and exploitation of wild species have created a “perfect storm” for diseases to spread. Their strongly worded article was published last week by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to one of the scientists, Professor Josef Settele of the Department of Community Ecology at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Halle, Germany.