{"word_count": 3134, "character_count": 21725}
  Marco Verch, licence Creative Commons 2.0, original photo There can be no peace on the Earth untilthere is peace with the Earth. This holistic concept of peace embraces presentand future generations of humans and all other living beings. The novelcoronavirus that now is visiting devastation and death in human societies amongall countries and all peoples, demonstrates this reality.&#160;On the centenary of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, we are learning once again the that pathogens can infect humans quickly, powerfully, and lethally.&#160; Too many styli view a disease like COVID-19 as an “act of God” or an unpredictable event. Such misguided beliefs ignore the scientific evidence that humans have created the disruptions of nature, which unleashed the viruses upon caused &#160;human communities. A century of scientific research has produced the ecological knowledge that has established how bacteria and viruses can live in wildlife safely without spilling over to infect humans. Ecology also teaches that if we disrupt natural habitats, we dislodge the pathogens which seek new homes in us. Since the 1980s, the science of Virology has taught us how novel coronaviruses function and spread. For example, when humans push development into forests, without knowing the consequences, they unleash diseases. See, for example,&#160; Bloomfield, L.S.P., McIntosh, T.L. &#38; Lambin, E.F., “Habitat fragmentation, livelihood behaviors, and contact between people and nonhuman primates in Africa.” Landscape Ecol 35, 985–1000 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-00995-w.Sadly, nonetheless, governments largely ignore what we know today. The&#160; “COVID-19” Pandemic disease is a brutalreminder, for people everywhere, that human health persists only when theambient environment also is healthy. When humans pollute their air and water,they fall ill. When humans allow their food to become contaminated, either byimproperly using pesticides on crops or allowing dangerous chemicals tobioaccumulate in the food chain, humans become ill. So too, when a virus likeSARS-CoV-2 infects every country across the Earth, we confront a public healthemergency that is the result of human misbehavior that impairs the health ofnature. That the Covid-19Pandemic erupted is a signal of “too little, too late.” What can be done toavert such a calamity in the first place? What must be done Post-COVID-19? TheNormandie Chair for Peace, with its focus on justice for future generations andfor species in addition to humans, explore the jurisprudence that can preventanother pandemic like the one ravishing humans across the Earth in 2020. Let usexplore how this pandemic unfolded.On New Year’sEve, the World Health Organization was informed of a cluster of the pneumoniacases in Wuhan, China. The source was soon identified as a novel coronavirus,soon to be identified as “SARS-CoV-2.” Scientists assigned the name, “SevereAcute Respiratory Syndrome” or SARS, to the novel coronavirus that firstemerged in 2002. The second iteration of this virus is more complex and harmfulto humans. On&#160; January 30th,the Director-General of the WHO declared a “Public Health Emergency ofInternational Concern.”&#160; Then, on March11, 2020, WHO declared this disease to be a Pandemic. All nations wereunprepared for the speed and power by which SARS-CoV-2 spread. Many politicalleaders professed to be surprised. However, such viruses are not uncommon.Humans and animals naturally host and travel with a multitude of pathogens,including viruses. Viruses can infect their carriers, leading to disease andpossibly death. They can also be innocuous.. When human activity dislodges avirus from its natural animal host, it seeks a new “reservoir host.” The newhost may appear unperturbed, and can then pass the virus on to humans or otheranimals that become then become ill, infected by the virus. When conditionspermit, viruses in animals can spillover to humans, multiply and in rarer casestransmit from human to human. This is what is happening with SARS-CoV-2.This phenomenonis known as zoonosis. Ecologists, and virologists,&#160; and veterinary doctors know that zoonosis isan integral part of life on Earth. It is always present, and is not an isolatedor single event, such as a pandemic. Governments tend to treat outbreaks ofrare diseases as single public health emergencies, rather than the result ofon-going interactions of natural systems which humans can manage or neglect. Thescience journalist David Quammen has brilliantly explained zoonosis in his bookSpill Over – Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic (2012).&#160; We all neglect zoonosis to our peril, asCOVID-19 teaches us.About the sametime as the 1918 Influenza Pandemic plagued people world-wide, the new scienceof ecology was being established. Since the Second World War, advances inecological studies have shown the collateral harm that is done when humansdisrupt intact natural systems, whether in forests or rivers or the seas. Morerecently, in the 1970s and 80s, &#160;thescience of virology has emerged. The Pandemic that originated with HIV-1 andHIV-2 in Africa became the HIV/AIDS crisis globally. We contained the epidemicof SARs in 2003 and of Ebola in 2013, but governments did not take the warningthat these zoonotic diseases&#160; presented.In 2018 WHO feared theappearance of another novel coronavirus, and set up a global “Watch” for the asyet unknown pathogen labeled “X.” &#160;&#160;InApril of 2000, WHO &#160;established&#160; theGlobal Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN). This is a network composedof technical and public health institutions, laboratories, non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs, and other institutions that cooperate to organizations toprovide surveillance to discover and respond to new diseases. &#160;WHO was primed to respond to the appearance of a novel coronavirus as the feared pathogen “X,”&#160; but most national governments were not. The systems of cooperation were too few and too new.&#160; Few nations provided funding to WHO, and it was thinly resources. Some governments, like that of the Administration of President Trump in the USA, had been cutting back funding for the WHO and the UN system.&#160; Virtually no governments fund the ecological studies needed to detect and cope with the reservoirs of virus which animals host in the wild. This blind spot is consequential. Most human diseases have zoonotic root. SinceJanuary, 2020, numerous research groups have scrambled to determine thereservoir and possible intermediary hosts for the SARS-CoV-2. Because Wuhan’slive meat markets were swiftly cleaned following acknowledgement of theoutbreak, identifying the hosts became a potentially impossible task.&#160; A coronavirus closely related SARS-CoV-2 hadpreviously been identified from a horseshoe bat in Yunnan, and later analysesrevealed that multiplelineages of pangolin host a coronavirus similar to SARS-CoV-2.The rush to find the possible animal hosts for SARS-CoV-2, however, divertsattention to preparing actions to avert further such crises for the next virus“X.” In the 20o3-4 SARS epidemic, fearful governments killed large number ofmasked palm civets (Peguma larvata), a small mammal wrongly thought tobe the source of the infection. Later ecological research traced the virus tofruit bats, but no efforts were launched to safeguard the health and habitatsof the bats.&#160; Urgentsearches for a “culprit” for SARS-CoV-2, or the massive global efforts to finda vaccine for COVID-19, deflect attention away from establishing effectivegovernmental systems to manage zoonosis. The virus was found to reside safelyin an endangered species, Pangolin (Philidota order), which is capturedand unlawfully traded across Asia. IUCN classifies Pangolin as endangered withextinction. Many sought to blame SARS-CoV-2 on the Pangolin and scape goat itas happened to the Civets. But this response does a disservice to animals andpeople alike. In place of responses driven by crises, we need to sustainconstant surveillance of wild animals to understand their habits, protect thenatural areas where they live, and ensure the health of wildlife…for the sakeof protecting human health. In themidst of COVID-19, it becomes patently clear that new governmental systems areneeded to handle managing the super-interface between multiple wildlife species, domesticanimals and humans. See N.A. Robinson and C. Walzer, “How Do We Prevent TheNext Outbreak?”,&#160; Scientific American(25 March 2020), at https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-do-we-prevent-the-next-outbreak/ . The “connections”between humans and animals exist in many agricultural settings withdomesticated animals, and in the markets for animals and consumption patternsin China and other South-East Asian countries, in Africa and elsewhere. Theyexist when humans bring “development” into the forests of the Amazon or Congo,or in their own back years. While governments ignore zoonosis, “nature” doesnot stand still. Viral systems continue to function, and viruses can even evolve.Relations among humans and animals enable the evolutionary drive of viruses toseek new hosts and expand their range, and spread disease. Whenhumans travel, they spread the coronavirus. Humans now infect each other.Covid-19 rapidly spread world-wide, even as public health officials workovertime to detect, trace, isolate and treat new cases.&#160; With unprecedented speed, scientific papersabout this coronavirus are being published. Government labs and pharmaceuticalcompanies work around the clock to find a vaccine for this virus. Healing themillions of&#160; ill persons is slow andproblematic. The human deaths are tragic. No nation is spared.Theeconomic cost of this Pandemic continue to mount. As early as February 11,2020, the head of the US Central Bank (the US Federal Reserve), Jerome H. Powertook note of “disruptions in China that spill over to the rest of the globaleconomy.” Virtually all factories and trading systems have closed to preventspread of the virus. Unemployment is at an all-time high. The global disruptionto commerce will take some years to repair. Past coronavirus epidemics havebeen costly, SARS in 2003 spread to 29 countries, and cost $40 billion. Ebolain 2014 cost $54 billion, and its spread beyond Africa was averted largelybecause the USA contributed personnel and material worth $2.34 billion to doso.&#160; The human and economic costs of COVID-19continue to be tallied. The US Congress in March, 2020 enacted a $2.2 trillion fiscal stimulus bill, the CoronavirusAid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, designed to offset the lossessuffered by businesses and households, hoping to mitigate the economicrecession. Even when first adopted, the CARES Act had proven to be insufficient.Further funding is needed in the USA to sustain operations by state governmentsand local authorities. Comparable economic crises have appeared in every nationacross the world. There is an economic pandemic to match the health pandemic.Virtually no funding – in the USA or anywhereelse -is earmarked to address zoonosis, or provide resources for essentiallong-term studies in ecology and to restore and maintain healthy habitats forwild animals and the virus that associate with them. Virtually no funding isdevoted to international cooperation along these lines. Do we get what we payfor? Governments pay dearly to try to find a vaccination, but not to preventthe disease in the first place.Insteadof launching scientific studies into the environmental origins of COVID-19, political, social, and evengovernmental authorities jump to launch conspiracy theories or “blame” eachother for not acting soon enough, or conjure up fanciful ideas and possiblestories about the novel coronavirus and it how it appeared so mysteriouslyamong humans. Despite the myriad impacts occasioned by COVID-19, Ignoranceabout this coronavirus abounds.&#160; WHO hascalled the spread of misinformation an “infodemic.”It goes viral, spreading over social media like a virus!&#160; Social media magnifies the misinformation. Weall should know better. WHO estimates that 61% of all viruses that infecthumans come from animals. This phenomenon is “zoonosis.” WHO finds that 75% ofnew diseases in the past decade are zoonotic.&#160; It is essential to educate humans in all communities, world-wide, that zoonotic spillovers are neither one-off events not only found in distant lands. They exist in both South and North America, in Asia and Africa, Europe and Eurasia, in fact everywhere. Humans are unaware of and fear a large number of diseases, without knowing about their zoonotic origins: rabies, West Nile virus, plague, Zika, dengue, Chikungunya, salmonellosis, hantavirus, or Lyme Disease. Humans strive mightily to avoid these zoonotic diseases. Lyme disease, spread from small mammals and birds to humans, is but one of the numerous zoonotic diseases transmitted by ticks in North America. Mosquitos infect humans with Zika and other diseases from a large potential pool of animal reservoirs. Zika has no vaccine yet, and its range is likely to expand as warmer winters no longer freeze out mosquito populations. Climate Change makes it all the more urgent that  measure are taken to restore and sustain healthy wild ecosystems, everywhere. Zoonotic virusesexist widely in the animal kingdom. What can we do to prevent infection by thenext coronavirus? What would we give today to have averted the pandemic ofHIV/AIDS, a lentivirus that was traced to human contact with infectedchimpanzees and soothy mangabeys in West Africa?&#160; The SARS epidemic in 2002 began from humancontact with a mammal, the civet, which bats had infected with the coronavirus.Ben Franklinadvised in 1736 that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Do wenot each wash our hands often to prevent contact with viruses? Does our globalsociety not need to do even more about “germs” that afflict us? Viruses,inhabiting wild animals, infect domesticated animals and similarly livestockdiseases can decimate the last wildlife populations. African Swine fever istoday wiping out pig production across Asia and threatens farms in Europe andNorth America. For the highly endangered wild pig species of South-East Asiathis virus could be the final blow. Avian influenza decimates chickens and caninfect humans. Large proportions of the world still fail to implement globalsanitary standards in livestock production and trade in animals and theirproducts. The large-scale urban consumption of wildlife knows no standards andcan never be considered sanitary and safe.&#160;Humans everywhere are at risk.What is calledfor is a more widely understood and accepted vision for environmentaljustice.&#160; Animal welfare and rights isnot a separate legal realm. Recognition of the rights &#160;of nature is not a unique jurisprudentialquest. The realm of ensuring public health and guaranteeing water to allthrough applying Human Rights is not isolated from wider ambit of theenvironment.&#160; These are facets ofholistic justice. The Normandie Chair for Peace has a challenge to make thisunity clear, and to understand through research and analysis how it functions,or is prevented from functioning.The COVID-19Pandemic exposes this unity. Only by adopting a “One Health” approach tohumanity’s caring for the Earth’s natural environment can every countryovercome the SARS-CoV-2 virus and avoid or mitigate the next viral infection,which lurks around the corner. To preventepidemics, humans must strive to keep the pathogens from leaving the animalkingdom in the first place.&#160; What is tobe done? The prescriptions for a “One Health” approach to environmentalstewardship exists. Ironically, they were unveiled in 2019, on the eve of theCOVID-19 Pandemic. In October of2019&#160; the Wildlife Conservation Societyand the German government recommended robust action to strengthen globalhealth. The Berlin Principles, for “One Planet, One Health, One Future,” setforth ten practical steps, prescriptions for healthy communities. Governmentsat all levels should heed this guidance. They can be studied at: https://oneworldonehealth.wcs.org/About-Us/Mission/The-2019-Berlin-Principles-on-One-Health.aspx. The first principle is clear: “Retain the essential health links betweenhumans,&#160; wildlife, domesticated animalsand plans, and all nature.” Through adhering to the Berlin Principles,communities can better “integrate understanding of human and animal health withthe health of the environment.” On April 2, 2020, the German government’sfederal Environment Minister Schulze advised that once the emergency phase ofthe Pandemic is over, “There will be a post-pandemic world. By then, at thelatest, we need to have understood the causes of this crisis, in order tobetter prevent a similar scenario in the future. Science tells us that thedestruction of ecosystems makes disease outbreaks including pandemics morelikely. This indicates that the destruction of nature is the underlying crisisbehind the coronavirus crisis. Conversely, this means that good natureconservation policy that protects our diverse ecosystems is a vital preventivehealth care measure against new diseases.” There are roles for ecologists andinternational organizations such as Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) , the United NationsEnvironment Programme (UNEP), and theIntergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and EcosystemServices (IPBES), to map out the steps that governmentswill need to take to establish This&#160; “OneHealth” approach. When governmentsin the post-Pandemic phase seek to avert the “next” pandemic, they will findadditional guidance also for taking a multi-sectoral and “One Health” approachto zoonosis.&#160; Also on the eve of theCOVID-19 Pandemic, in&#160; March of 2019, theWorld Health Organization, the UN Food &#38; Agricultural Organization, and theWorld Organization for Animal Health issued guidelines similar to the BerlinPrinciples. They are contained in a book, “A Tripartite Guide to AddressingZoonotic Diseases in Countries.” https://extranet.who.int/sph/docs/file/3524&#160;. This guide re-enforces the consensusthat all nations had attained in 2015, in the 15th UN SustainableDevelopment Goal:&#160; “Protect, restore andpromote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forestscombat desertification, and halt and reverses land degradation and haltbiodiversity loss.” Until SGD 15 is attained, the world of humans will be atheightened risk from zoonotic diseases. As the International Union for theConservation of Nature (IUCN) has made clear since 1948, nature conservation isessential. Although sustaining Earth’s natural environment is among mostimportant responsibilities of government,&#160;too many economies treat this role as an “externality.” If suchignorance could be excused before now, after the COVID-19 Pandemic to do so isthe height of irresponsibility. There is only “One Health” across all theEarth. Now,&#160; and surely after the Pandemic recedes, is not necessary to wait for the UN or regional government to act. As René Dubos counselled, “Think globally and act locally.” &#160;The Normandie Chair for Peace can encourage actions and research to do so. Municipal parks, wetlands, woods and back yards are hosts to animals. Locally, In Normandie and around the world, steps can be taken to restore and maintain healthy local ecosystems to avert releases of diseases. For example, to keep West Nile virus at bay, micro-manage local mosquito populations, all the time. Waiting to act until a disease infects a human is too late. Responding then by blasting pesticides on flora and fauna is “biocide,” in Rachel Carson’s words, and is also ineffective and can increase susceptibility to diseases. Provincial and local authorities should support the robust and continuous enforcement of environmental laws that protect endangered species, like pangolin, and should ensure humane care of domestic animals and animals raised for market. Doing so also protects us. Much can be doneto advance “One Health.” Every environmental impact assessment (EIA) shouldundertake to advance the health of nature to the fullest extent possible. Toooften governments ignore their EIA duties altogether.&#160; The regression in environmental protectionthat we experience in many countries, as Michel Prieur has wisely warned, mustend. Continuing to regress will cause humans shall suffer as we do now withCOVID-19. “One Health” studies must teach is how to respect nature and manage our exposure to zoonosis.&#160; For example, park and wildlife managers at all levels of government are as essential for ensuring our public health as are hospitals and doctors, of as police and security agencies. They need to be funded accordingly. To avert the next epidemic, governments at all levels should create and increase trans-sector funding to improve health through environmental investments. Such investments nourish us in many ways. John Burroughs, a much loved 19th century naturalist in New York where I live along the Hudson River, summed a “One Health” approach to peace with the Earth in these words: “I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” Healing nature heals us. Nicholas A. Robinson ** Prof. Nicholas A. Robinson joins Tony Oposa asan Emeritus scholar in the Normandie Chair for Peace. He is the Executive Governor of the International Council of Environmental Law and is the Kerlin Professor Emeritus of Environmental Law in the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University (New York).&#160;   