Abstract: In Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari, the Israeli historian, wrote that the Abrahamic religions, the agriculture religions, created humans in the image of God to rule over all other animals and the Earth.[1] This belief in humanity’s omnipotence to do whatever it wants with other animals and the planet has had deleterious impacts on health and well-being. One Health is the concept that human, animal, and environmental/ecosystem health are linked. We must recognize our connectedness with the other animals and our dependence upon a healthy planet if we are to survive as a species. We are surprised when our actions such as the trade, slaughter, and consumption of endangered species results in the emergence of a deadly pandemic. Even worse, our wastes are contaminating the planet. Over 7.5 billion humans and over 30 billion food mammals constitute 96 to 98 percent of the total mammalian zoomass on Earth, producing almost 4 trillion kgs of fecal matter, contaminating soils and waters, and emitting greenhouse gasses.[2][3] If we are to have a sustainable future, we must implement a One Health approach to global health.

[1] Harari YN. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. HarperCollins, New York. 2015.

[2] Zeller U, Starik N, Gottert T. (2017) Biodiversity, Land Use and Ecosystem Services—An Organismic and Comparative Approach to Different Geographical Regions. Global Ecology and Conservation. 10: 114-125.

[3] Berendes DM, Yang PJ, Lai A, et al. (2018) Estimation of Global Recoverable Human and Animal Faecal Biomass. Nature Sustainability. 1: 679-685.

Dr. Laura H. Kahn is a physician and research scholar with the Program on Science and Global Security at the Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs. In 2006, she published Confronting Zoonoses, Linking Human and Veterinary Medicine in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases that helped launch the  One Health Initiative.  Kahn is the author of two books: Who’s in Charge? Leadership During Epidemics, Bioterror Attacks, and Other Public Health Crises and One Health and the Politics of Antimicrobial Resistance. In June 2020, she launched her Coursera course: Bats, Ducks, and Pandemics: An Introduction to One Health Policy which has thousands of students from around the world. In 2014, Kahn received a Presidential Award for Meritorious Service from the American Association of Public Health Physicians, and, in 2016, the American Veterinary Epidemiology Society (AVES) awarded her with their highest honor for her work in One Health: the K.F. Meyer-James H. Steele Gold Head Cane Award.