A “lifeline out of the COVID ‐19 crisis”? An ecofeminist critique of the European Green Deal
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: In early 2020, the world was rocked by a highly contagious, acute respiratory virus.Within a few months, many countries had gone into lockdown and were issuing mandatory maskwearing and social distancing in what came to be known as the COVID-19 pandemic.1 Many theories quickly developed as to how and where COVID-19 emerged, although the definitive answer is still not available.Scientists do agree, however, that it is a zoonotic virus-meaning it is an infectious diseases transferred from animals to humans or vice-versa-and that the Wuhan market in China was a major, initial spreading location (Maxmen, 2022; Pigenet, 2020; WHO, 2021b).For some time now, the scientific community has been warning of the potential for increases in zoonotic diseases with the intensification of climate change and the rise of global warming as by-products of anthropogenic activities that have pushed animals and humans into closer contact (see, e.g., Schrag & Weiner, 1995).A joint-report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Livestock Research Institute (, 2020, p. 11) recently recalled that, "While pandemics such as are sometimes seen as a 'black swan'-an extremely rare event-they are actually a widely predicted consequence of how people source food, trade animals, and alter environments."That report warns that, "the rising trend in zoonotic diseases is driven by the degradation of our natural environment" and results from anthropogenic activities, including agricultural intensification and conversion of land, wildlife exploitation, resource extraction, increased demand for animal protein and climate change.Despite the world being taken by surprise in early 2020, COVID-19 was in fact a foreseeable event.In the wake of the pandemic, Vandana Shiva called attention to how zoonotic diseases are intimately linked to patriarchy, colonialism, and neoliberal capitalism.She connected the dots:The health emergency of the coronavirus is inseparable from the health emergency of extinction, the health emergency of biodiversity loss, and the health emergency
Source: Law & Policy
DOI: 10.1111/lapo.12211
Author: Stefanie Khoury
Institution: Queen Mary University of London
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,040
OpenAlex ID: W4321088519