Global interconnections reach all parts of our lives, and that includes our Christmas festivities. In the UK, we collectively sat down to consume several million turkeys this yuletide, so it is a sobering thought that most of the new diseases that have emerged in humans over recent decades have been transmitted to us by animals.
What’s more, a recent FAO report (PDF) links the emergence of diseases such as HIV, SARS and new influenza viruses, with the human quest for meat, including how we farm to feed ever growing human populations.
The report highlights yet another way in which we are linked, not only to each other, but also to all life on the planet. Reading through, it also reinforced for me a key theme for our work at Think Global at the moment – the way in which numeracy is an important tool in exploring and interpreting our globalised world.
Many of the questions that came to mind as I was reading the report can be answered in numerical terms:
- How many new diseases have emerged in the last decade?
- How significant is the spread of animal-origin disease in relation to other new diseases?
- How much more intensive is, for example, beef farming than it was a decade ago?
- How much animal trade occurs around the world?
