Pandemics such as Covid-19 could increase in the future, due to human industrial activity.

Overexploitation of resources, intensive breeding and deforestation are disrupting biodiversity and could promote zoonoses, infections that can be transmitted from animals to humans.

But humans can still be a game-changer.

INTERVIEW

What if the Covid-19 pandemic was just the start of a longer series?

According to the IPCC for biodiversity, the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), epidemics risk increasing in the years to come, and causing more deaths.

In question, the immense reservoir of unknown viruses in the animal world, whose balance is threatened by climate change.

According to Benjamin Coriat, economist, professor emeritus at Sorbonne Paris-Nord University and author of

The Pandemic, the anthropocene and the common good

, deforestation, overexploitation of resources and intensive livestock production are the main factors of the potential disturbances in come.

He explains it on Europe 1.

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The economist, who designates by the term Anthropocene an "era of deregulation, linked to the intensity of human industrial activity", recalls the risk of multiplication of "zoonoses", diseases which are transmitted from animals to humans .

"A large number of virologists and infectious diseases specialists during the Covid-19 pandemic pointed out that it was a particular pandemic," he explains.

"These zoonoses have been multiplying rapidly for thirty years." 

"This is an occurrence which will recur in the future, so we cannot say when, how ... But what is certain is that this transmission of diseases from animals to humans will increase." , he assures.

This Wednesday, as a symbol, the Minister of Higher Education and Research Frédérique Vidal and Yazdan Yazdanpanah, member of the Scientific Council, announce the creation of a new research agency, responsible for monitoring emerging and infectious diseases from of 2021, in

Le Figaro

.

A forced "extractivism" 

To explain this acceleration of the transmission of viruses from animals to humans, Benjamin Coriat puts forward several explanations.

First, what he calls "extractivism", that is to say deforestation and massive exploitation of resources.

"More generally, all forms of destruction of biodiversity mean that we come into contact with wild fauna, which carry viruses normally controlled in plural, diverse spaces, blocked by diversity. When we break diversity, when we introduce monoculture, when we go deep into the forests, when we dig under the poles: we liberate. "

>> Find Matthieu Belliard's interview in replay and podcast here 

Second explanatory factor: intensive farming above ground, "in particular for poultry, but not only, because now it is multiplying for all kinds of animals", specifies Benjamin Coriat.

According to him, these modes of production are "virus nests".

"These are unique varieties that are fed in a very chemical way. And the uniqueness promotes the spread of the virus," he explains.

"When you have quite different species, the virus passes into some species, but not others."

The economist also points to a faster spread of viruses due to globalization and trade.

However, the solution is not to give it up, according to him.

"The solution is not to stop international trade, but to regulate it so that there are health standards and strict environmental standards, to ensure that they are respected. , to put a brake on extractivism, to protect biodiversity, to return to agriculture based on diversity, respectful of natural cycles ", he concludes, stressing that he is not" pessimistic ".

"There are those who tell us that it's over, that it's too late. I don't think so," said Benjamin Coriat.