Is nature a threat to humans – or are humans a threat to humans?

Timely Insight #2

Is nature a threat to humans, or are humans a threat to humans?

Perfect conditions for exotic infectious diseases to emerge and spread make it seem like we’re set up to fail. The emerging discipline of planetary health really comes in handy – a field that help us understand the connection between the wellbeing of humans, other living beings, and entire ecosystems.

Today, we’re exploring how resource demand, urbanisation, and land use expansion makes nature change in ways that increase risk of contagious diseases. John Vidal of The Guardian takes us on a tour of some of the dynamics at play, including why banning the wet markets isn’t necessarily a viable (or even possible) solution.

Here’s a daily perspective on the broad strokes of the corona crisis.


“There’s misapprehension among scientists and the public that natural ecosystems are the source of threats to ourselves. It’s a mistake. Nature poses threats, it is true, but it’s human activities that do the real damage. The health risks in a natural environment can be made much worse when we interfere with it.”

Full article here.


Upon two perspectives on some causes of COVID-19, with the next Timely Insight we’ll explore some of the effects that the disease is having on society on multiple levels.

Thanks to Dea Juul Larsen for hinting today’s article with us. You can send a recommendation too, by following the link below.

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Timely Insights in an interconnected world

Timely Insights for Climate Action digs into current developments to illuminate an interconnected world.

A global pandemic with severe impacts on people’s lives in most places, says a lot about the times we live in. Join us from your self-quarantine in exploring timely insights from COVID-19 outbreak and beyond, and what it means for climate action.

We’re compiling existing articles to discuss and highlight how they help us understand the ways in which the world is connected. In these days of social distancing, we aim to support ourselves and readers in leveraging the learnings from what’s unfolding right now, to be better suited for catalyzing climate action.

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