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Roughly three out of every four new diseases in humans come from animals.

Using the latest science, Dulaney writes about the fear of contagion and why we must do something about it.

It stresses the interconnectivity of all life on our planet and there's no free ride because we're special.

Human destruction of the environment is responsible for the accelerating spillover of animal diseases.

Over the past few years, I have noticed an increasing number of scientific papers and news reports about the ever-increasing concern of diseases passed from nonhuman animals (animals) to humans. The spread of zoonotic diseases should be a concern to all of us, not only scientists who study them and physicians who treat them. That is one reason I am strongly drawn to the new, highly acclaimed book Sentinels: When Diseases Spread Between Animals and Humans by award-winning writer Michael Dulaney. In the book, he writes about "the interconnected forces of climate change, habitat destruction, factory farming, globalization, and inequality." If you're going to read one book on this alarming plight, this is the one.

Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Sentinels?

Michael Dulaney: The book explores how humans' impact on the environment is causing more infectious diseases to leap from animals to humans than ever before. I started researching the subject during the COVID-19 pandemic, when I discovered that scientists had been issuing eerily prescient warnings about just such a virus for many years prior. I was surprised to learn that most new diseases in humans come from animals, with human activity and exploitation of the natural world as the main cause. It was clearly an environmental story of global importance, one that will become more urgent as the........

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