Commentary: Climate change is nudging us toward the next pandemic

The threat of climate change conjures certain scenes: Smoke billowing from a forest aflame. Smothering heat clinging to the distorted asphalt of a densely packed street. Glaciers breaking off into a rising sea. Another scenario should be equally terrifying but is harder to envision: a virus leaving the animal that has played blind host for an encroaching human being.

For years, scientists have been warning us about an unsettling reality: that climate change will make pandemics more likely in our collective future.

Much like climate change’s effects on our environment, its