Halt destruction of nature or suffer even worse pandemics, say world’s top scientists

Exclusive: only one species is responsible for coronavirus - humans - say world's leading wildlife experts

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The coronavirus pandemic is likely to be followed by even more deadly and destructive disease outbreaks unless their root cause - the rampant destruction of the natural world - is rapidly halted, the world's leading biodiversity experts have warned.

"There is a single species responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic - us," they said. "Recent pandemics are a direct consequence of human activity, particularly our global financial and economic systems that prize economic growth at any cost. We have a small window of opportunity, in overcoming the challenges of the current crisis, to avoid sowing the seeds of future ones."