These last few months have changed our lives in ways we could never have imagined, both at work and in our relationships with others. A virus, COVID-19, has generated an unprecedented crisis, with major economic, social and environmental consequences. At the economic level, many companies have stopped their activity dead in its tracks, while others have had to reinvent themselves or transform their operations to adapt to the needs of the moment: masks, gloves, gels or respirators.

Socially, this crisis has highlighted the importance of certain aspects such as care, healthcare and Education, to which we had not paid the necessary attention. It is also causing the social gap to widen, making it clear that many resources, such as technology, are not within everyone's reach.

And what does this have to do with the environment? Well, the very origin of the problem lies in our relationship with it. The crisis caused by the virus, which appeared as if by magic more than 9,000 km away from our homes, has been a direct consequence of our use of nature. In this case, an exotic internship , such as the use of pangolin for human consumption, has been the trigger of an unprecedented pandemic. Similar situations in which other viruses crossed species, reaching people, have already occurred with SARS (2003), H1N1 (2009) and MERS (2012), although with less geographical impact.

These animal-borne infections are appearing more and more frequently as a result of the increasing exploitation of natural resources and the growing incursion of humans into wild areas. More than half of the infectious diseases of the last century have their origin in the contact with species, derived from the reduction of ecosystems and biodiversity. The overexploitation of natural resources, such as the extraction of fossil fuels, the indiscriminate use of land for intensive agricultural use, the burning and felling of vegetation, the use of pesticides or the substitution of plant and animal species, have significantly altered the environment. One of its most tragic effects is the elimination of natural containment areas, which normally delimit the zones between human and wild habitats. As these barriers disappear, corridors are established for the transmission of pathogens from animals to humans. But that is not all: global warming is another of the serious consequences of overexploitation of the planet.

2020 was the year in which most countries had as one of their main objectives the fight against global warming. In fact, there had been signs of concern in different areas, from worldwide citizen mobilizations to urgent statements at the Climate Change (COP25) sessions in Madrid last December, about the need to change course and address the measures needed to curb the increase in temperature and the loss of biodiversity around the world.

That same December, the European Commission announced the "Green Deal" or European Green Pact, a roadmap to promote actions aimed at achieving a sustainable Economics , setting climate neutrality in 2050 throughout the European Union as goal main goal. The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has left all these good intentions at Fail for almost three months, but it has also taught us that our species is no less vulnerable than any other and that, in order to take care of ourselves, we must take care of nature. On the other hand, we have proven that, when needed, we are capable of slowing down our activity and prioritizing what is important: people and the planet. Now, when it seems that we are going to restore a "new normal", we have the opportunity to do things differently and take seriously the ecosystem in which we live.

This World Environment Day should be a moment of reflection to inspire the positive change that has so often been announced, signed and postponed. This year's topic is biodiversity: a call to action to combat the accelerating loss of species and degradation of the natural world. Now is the time to reflect on how we have developed our economic systems and what impact they are having on the environment. We need to rethink the way we consume and relate to our environment (people, animals and plants) and, as companies, address more circular and low-carbon production models.

Nature is sending us a clear message. We have a chance to respond by putting life at the center and changing the way we do things. These past few months we have been able, as a community, to work together to save lives and reduce the economic consequences of this pandemic. Now is the time to use what we have learned to change our relationship with nature.