(Fighting against New Coronary Pneumonia) From game to pet: how to "rebalance" the relationship between man and nature?
China News Service, Beijing, May 2 Question: From game to pet: how to "rebalance" the relationship between man and nature?
Author Huang Yuqin
British physicist Newton once said: "Nature likes simplicity, and nature is not a puppet." When the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia spread worldwide, the distant voices of the sages became clear and loud nowadays, and people returned to the ancient New philosophical question: How should one examine the relationship between man and nature?
From an ecological point of view, it seems easy to understand the plight of humanity today. Scott Weese, a professor of medicine at the University of Guelph in Canada, said in an interview with a reporter from the China News Service that organisms in nature restrict each other and maintain a delicate balance. Affected by climate change, urban expansion, ecotourism, hunting, etc., the original balance of nature has been constantly broken by human activities, creating more paths for communication between organisms, and the risk of diseases spreading from animals to humans has also increased.
As some analysis pointed out, the epidemic is the result of abnormal interaction between humans and nature. Human activities have caused the ecological environment to continue to be unbalanced, providing the virus with a large number of "overflow" opportunities. Evolution seized this opportunity to transform "overflow" into an infectious disease.
There may be many ways for the virus to "overflow", and wild food is undoubtedly one of them. Humans try to become masters of nature, but they first become slaves of the stomach. The wild consumption of wild animals is alienated into status symbols and flaunting capital. The associated hunting, breeding, transportation, and slaughtering links behind it create "beneficial" conditions for the virus to be discharged.
From SARS, MERS, and Ebola to new coronaviruses, the global health crisis in recent years has not only been zoonotic. Statistics show that more than 70% of new infectious diseases are related to or derived from wild animals.
In this regard, institutional constraints have become an important way to realize the "rebalance" of the relationship between man and nature. On February 24, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed a decision on comprehensively prohibiting illegal wildlife trade, eradicating the abuse of wild animals and effectively guaranteeing the lives, health and safety of the people. Subsequently, various local legislatures in China have also launched amendments to the law to increase the punishment for illegal consumption of wild animals.
On April 26, the revised draft of the Animal Epidemic Prevention Law was first submitted to China's highest legislative body for review, and it will establish a sound supervision system for the transportation of animals and their products, and weave a law network for the prevention and control of animal epidemics. Cao Binghai, a professor at the School of Animal Science and Technology of China Agricultural University, pointed out that "strengthening the supervision of animal and product transportation is an important measure to control the cross-regional spread of animal epidemic diseases".
It is worth noting that the sudden outbreak not only caused society to re-examine the relationship between humans and wild animals, but also became more subtle between humans and pets. If the management of wildlife shows the importance of the system, the attitude towards pets is constantly calling for a return of reason.
The epidemic has brought disaster to humans, and it has also caused petty disasters to pets. Especially when cats and dogs have been found to be possibly infected with the new coronavirus, the panic mood makes people's attitude towards pets more and more complicated.
Although authoritative organizations such as the World Animal Health Organization have repeatedly emphasized that "there is no evidence that pets will be the cause of the spread of the new coronavirus to humans", some pets have not been able to escape the rumor. During the epidemic, pets were abandoned and abused in many places. Individual local departments took the lead in organizing the killing of stray cats and dogs. Residents dropped their pets from high-rise buildings and other acts from time to time.
"Abandoning pet abuse is not only a disregard for life, it is also more likely to cause other public health problems, which is not conducive to the prevention and control of the epidemic." Sun Yuhua, associate professor of East China University of Political Science and Law, pointed out.
Some experts said that human attitudes toward pets became the epitome of natural attitudes, and the overreaction to disregard science finally manifested as continuous avoidance. In the face of the epidemic, it is easy to join the "pancho" of blind panic. At this time, there is no shortage of extreme voices, but the words of reason are more precious.
When the epidemic has become a constant warning to mankind from nature, under the crisis, people once again return to the ancient and often new problem. How to seek "rebalance" with nature in the process of human development continues to become an immediate urgency Must answer questions. Perhaps, institutional and rational constraints are the most appropriate answers nowadays, and the best response to the warnings of the sages. (Finish)