Health from ecological justice: from the regeneration of wild nature to the prevention of future pandemics

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to explore a philosophical perspective on health linked to the restoration of wild nature, especially on the basis of some lessons that can be drawn from the spread of recent zoonotic diseases. The first section presents the relationship that the COVID-19 pandemic has maintained with social justice, venturing the thesis that ecological justice is a dimension that should be incorporated with deeper attention. To justify this, the following sections propose, first at the conceptual level, to approach a concept of health that is plural, dynamic and interdependent, and, then at the pragmatic level, to take as a reference the casuistry that shows an inverse correlation between the presence of wild biodiversity in a territory and contagion by zoonoses. In sum, these thoughts may lead to justify anticipatory duties for future pandemics and a responsibility for global health that deserve to be analyzed from an ethical point of view.