This archive report was first published on 25 June 2020.
Published on June 25, 2020, a Los Angeles Times article highlighted the consequences of human treatment of animals and their habitats, stating that diseases like Covid-19 are an 'expected consequence' of our actions.
Urbanisation, a process that involves extending the city and concentrating activities and movements, has led to the increasing frequency of novel zoonotic diseases. The relationship between humans and animals has become a focal point in social and scientific debates, with evidence suggesting that humans transmit Covid-19 back to other animal species, including domesticated dogs and cats, tigers in captivity, and possibly apes.
Wildlife trade, deforestation, land conversion, industrial animal farming, and burning fossil fuels are contributing factors to the emergence of novel zoonotic diseases. Urbanisation is both a driver of zoonosis and a determining influence on human-nature and human-animal relationships.
Urban political ecology, a field of study that investigates the relationships sustaining urban life, considers urbanisation as a political, economic, social, and ecological process. The urban periphery, once described as either polished middle-class suburbia or invisible dumping grounds, now takes various forms, including informal settlements, gated communities, tower estates, and peri-urban villages.
Extended urbanisation occurs within a capitalist framework of massive inequality, where the ever-extending size and importance of the urban periphery have significant implications for human and animal interactions.
