Into the abyss

SIMON Bevilacqua’s excellent article (Mercury on Saturday, August 8) reminded me that news outlets reported the UN Environment Program’s release of a report on COVID-19 pointing to human activities as major contributors to the rise in zoonotic infections and pandemics.

It recommended ending over-exploitation of wildlife and natural resources, farming sustainably and reversing land degradation, to limit opportunities for infections to jump from animal to human. Such a report seems to suggests we need a rethink of economies but this report seems to have sunk into the abyss of unpalatable recommendations. While governments do great work in trying to contain the pandemic and supporting those affected, longterm thinking seems unchanged, so much so they are busy advocating population growth and removing red tape on development as the way forward. This is the old formula that seeks to make quick profits because long-term thinking is too hard and falls outside the political cycle.

Tourism in national parks and reserves and “under-utilised” public land is a symptom of this approach. Touted as low impact and making our environment more accessible, they pay little respect to the neighbourhood or environment, rarely create the number of jobs they promise and in most cases do not even compensate us with a share of the profits, which almost always go to overseas interests.

Jenny Rayner Montagu Bay