Open AccessViewpoint: Coronavirus Pandemic- The Roles of Environmental Education and Conservation Message Framing in Curbing Zoonotic Diseases
Author(s) -
Tayo Akeem Yusuf
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
southern african journal of environmental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2411-5959
pISSN - 0256-7504
DOI - 10.4314/sajee.v36i1.12
Subject(s) - pandemic , framing (construction) , covid-19 , environmental ethics , altruism (biology) , ethical egoism , psychology , political science , social psychology , environmental resource management , geography , economics , biology , medicine , virology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , philosophy , disease , archaeology , pathology , outbreak
This viewpoint paper posits that it is helpful to frame environmental problems as human health problems. The most fundamental way to protect ourselves from zoonotic diseases (such as COVID-19) seems to be support healthy ecosystems that have resilience. Humans around the world are sometimes motivated by selfish motives and sometimes by altrustic motives. This viewpoint paper proposes an integrative view of environmental behaviour with dimensions of both selftranscendence (altruism) and self-enhancement (egoism), in the hope that both kinds of values could lead to an increase in pro-environmental behaviour.