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Scientists need to better communicate the links between pandemics and global environmental change

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 5, pages 1466–1467 (2021)Cite this article

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To the Editor — The current COVID-19 pandemic is often imagined as a challenge humanity has to weather, with additional, different ones — including climate change — lurking right behind. This conceptualization of the pandemic as a human health crisis, juxtaposed to other, separate issues affecting the planet misses the bigger picture: that this pandemic is part of a syndrome of human effects on the planet. The pandemic and global environmental change are intimately intertwined at multiple levels, and this must be more clearly articulated to the public and in policy.

There are also similarities in how key aspects of pandemics and global change factors unfold8. They are both high-momentum trends, causing mostly irreversible change. They both tend to induce a deterioration in international cooperation, are less costly to prevent than to fix and exacerbate inequality among citizens, countries and regions. Global change and pandemics occur within common spheres and highlight the evolutionarily wired human ability to deal with the here and now, at the cost of dealing effectively with planning for the future9. As a consequence, pathways to solutions, even though they will differ greatly in terms of actual measures or research priorities, are similar between pandemics and many issues connected to global change factors. At the heart is international cooperation, which is indispensable for reaching globally relevant goals.

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Fig. 1: The SARS-CoV-2 virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic is linked to a range of global-change factors.

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Acknowledgements

M.C.R. acknowledges funding from an ERC Advanced Grant (grant no. 694368).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Matthias C. Rillig & Anika Lehmann

  2. Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Berlin, Germany

    Matthias C. Rillig & Anika Lehmann

  3. Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway

    Michael S. Bank

  4. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

    Michael S. Bank

  5. School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Kenneth A. Gould

  6. Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Hauke R. Heekeren

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  1. Matthias C. Rillig
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  2. Anika Lehmann
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  4. Kenneth A. Gould
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  5. Hauke R. Heekeren
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Contributions

M.C.R. conceptualized the structure and content of the manuscript and wrote an initial draft. A.L., M.S.B., K.A.G. and H.R.H. expanded upon the ideas contained within the draft and helped edit the final manuscript. A.L. designed the figure.

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Correspondence to Matthias C. Rillig.

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Rillig, M.C., Lehmann, A., Bank, M.S. et al. Scientists need to better communicate the links between pandemics and global environmental change. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 1466–1467 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01552-7

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