Earth is hurtling towards disaster: Dr. Soumya Swaminathan
Earth is hurtling towards disaster, said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, who recently served as World Health Organization’s Chief Scientist, in conversation with Ramya Kannan, The Hindu’s health editor and the Tamil Nadu bureau chief.
“One of the reasons is due to three or four interconnected things, mainly due to loss of biodiversity.”
Loss of biodiversity, climate change, air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, are interconnected, said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan. “This is why the concept of ‘One Health’ where we look at all living beings as we are one planet. There are many examples of species, due to drugs that human beings produced and used in livestock, we have lost 97% of vultures. The loss of vultures then affects the cycle of waste. If we don’t have vultures, then the animal carcasses spread diseases.”
To a question on whether in a country that is so dense, whether we will be able to handle a concept known as ‘One Health’, Indian Administrative Service officer Supriya Sahu said, “It may be very difficult to go towards a direction where everybody understands the importance of one health. This concept has always been there, it’s not a new concept. Regarding the disappearance of vultures, a recent study shows that in certain districts from where vultures disappeared, the rate of human death has increased by 4.7% in comparison to other districts in India.”
“Even if you look at the economic cost of the One Health or the climate change, it is catastrophic. It is completely throwing communities off guard and make them vulnerable and further bringing them down to the level of poverty. The good news is, the awareness is coming very soon. Vaccinating cattle and dogs, in an around the forest areas, is one of the most effective strategies to control the spread of diseases.”
Supriya Sahu said, “The cost of such pandemics must be humongous. The approximate cost of COVID-19 pandemic was 11 trillion U.S. dollars and it is still being calculated. Ebola pandemic few years back, it costed about 45 billion U.S. dollars. Every disease that breaks out, is a huge economic burden.”
