Our vision
A future that is resilient to emerging disease threats, supports healthy ecosystems and our own communities, and where we make decisions based on science.
Latest Updates
UPDATE! Blame movie: Awards, theatrical release, US premiere!
By Dr. Peter Daszak |
Blame: Major award nomination, release in cinemas, US premiere! Official press photo for Blame, a movie documentary by Christian Frei. Credit Adam Dean for Christian Frei Filmproductions “Blame” is a documentary movie by the Oscar-nominated, Sundance Festival award winning Swiss Director
New paper identifies widespread risk of coronavirus spillover in pigs and people across Southeast Asia and China
By Dr. Peter Daszak |
A new scientific paper from Nature Health Global scientists identifies widespread spillover risk of a group of coronaviruses in China and Southeast Asia. SADS-related alpha-coronaviruses were first identified in 2018 in our breakthrough paper in Nature, as the cause of largescale outbreaks in pig farms
UPDATE! Documentary movie Blame has now won FOUR major awards!
By Dr. Peter Daszak |
“BLAME” – An award-winning documentary movie about science upended in a planet out of balance “Blame” is a documentary movie by the Oscar-nominated, Sundance Festival award winning Swiss Director Christian Frei. The film focuses on three scientists, Dr. Zhengli Shi formerly of the Wuhan Institute
Why does this matter?
Scientific research shows that human-driven environmental changes have caused dramatic changes to our landscape, our ecosystems, and our oceans.
Climate change, deforestation, agricultural intensification, unsustainable wildlife trade, and overuse of natural resources are hallmarks of the Anthropocene – the age when our own activities have fundamentally changed the geography of our planet, our oceans, and our land.
The result of these changes is a planet that is out of balance, where our demands on the environment are only achievable at great cost to ourselves and future generations. Nature.Health.Global. aims to help start the process of rebalancing our place on the planet.
We will do this
- first by better understanding how our footprint undermines planetary health, our own health, and drives biodiversity loss
- then by designing solutions that provide more sustainable alternatives, reduce health impacts and risk, and help conserve our planet's biodiversity and resources.
Overuse of Natural Resources
Overfishing and pollution in our oceans has led to shortages of once-common sources of food, and has increased hunting of wildlife in some areas as communities try to survive. In biodiversity hotspots in Southeast Asia, deforestation and intensive palm oil production has driven cycles of forest fires, haze, coral die-offs, and respiratory disease outbreaks.
Deforestation
Through industrialization, we have cut down our forests and removed critical carbon sinks that can take CO2 out of the atmosphere and mitigate climate change.
Agricultural Intensification
Rapid expansion of agriculture has led to nutrient runoffs that have choked our estuaries and caused dead zones along our coasts.
Intensive livestock production has simplified our food chains and made us susceptible to the spread of new diseases like H5N1 influenza in our poultry farms, cattle ranches, and even in our marine environments.
Unsustainable Wlldlife Trade
Over-harvesting and industrial-scale farming of wildlife has caused the emergence of SARS and COVID-19 and threatens to lead to further pandemics. COVID-19 has cost tens of trillions of dollars to our global economy and is estimated to have caused the death of tens of millions of people.
