Coronavirus Pandemic: The Roles of Environmental Education and Conservation Message Framing in Curbing Zoonotic Diseases

Abstract

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 self-transcendence (altruism) and self-enhancement (egoism), in the hope that both kinds of values could lead to an increase in pro-environmental behaviour.