Where does the environment stand once Covid-19 is over?
“We can choose to emerge from this crisis better and stronger but also more humane and conscious. In everything we do from now on, we are choosing the post-Covid world we want to build and live in.”
Some say that the Covid-19 crisis is a response from Mother Nature to its mistreatment from us. I am not going to defend here that there is a direct relationship of cause-consequence, but we all know that nature finds its own ways. Even if at the end of all of this, the relationship between the way we treat the planet and the emergence of this pandemic is equal to zero, it is, at least, karma.
One of the effects this crisis is having is accelerating change. As Charles Eisenstein wrote in a brilliant recent text, after this “urgent rehab intervention” we can all choose “what parts of the economy we want to restore”. And it is also in this moment, or opportunity, that we can all choose what we want to be, as humans, from here on out.
If we look around at people’s, governments’ and businesses’ reactions, we can see that there is a choice that defines each one. There are those who give and share, and those who run to the supermarket to buy as much as they can. Those who choose to fire their employees before it is even necessary and those who choose to take a pay cut to their own salaries before their employees’. Countries who ask for help and countries who refuse to give it. Those who suddenly join forces, voluntarily, to fight the spread of the virus and those who continue to see everything as a way to make money and sell “a pig in a poke” to people or organisations in despair.
This is also accelerating trends that are becoming a new reality. (in some countries more than others): working from home, meetings by videoconference or new technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), the Internet of Things (IOT) can contribute to the digitization of services, businesses, governments or human relations.
Yuval Noal Harari elaborated on this subject and the risk (or temptation) that the imposition of strict rules and surveillance that we are now subjected might pose towards new authoritarian ways of operating in a profound and widely shared article. I prefer to think that rather than an imposition, what we are going through is a collective effort that results from the existence of a common and visible enemy. As we often say, if climate change was a black stain in the sky, we would all come together to fight it. But the authoritarian temptation exists and it is also in this moment that leaders are defined.
I will leave here three tendencies that are being rapidly accelerated and I hope that they stay:
1) The importance of self-sufficiency
One of the greatest ironies of this crisis is that it started in China, which has now (allegedly) passed the peak infection rate, the country that we are all now depending on to get hold of protective hospital equipment (masks, gloves, etc.) and equipment like ventilators.
In the midst of this pandemonium we are all living through, small countries like Portugal are not able to compete with the scale of orders that bigger countries like Germany and France request from Chinese producers. And European solidarity is still yet to be demonstrated.
Luckily, movements from citizens and businesses have rapidly emerged to produce what we most need locally and these will have effects even before the arrival of big Chinese orders (which will arrive too late to prevent the peak that is anticipated).
I am proud to have GoParity leading the fundraiser to purchase hospital materials as part of the Tech4Covid19 movement, and lots of the projects launched as part of the movement, but we also have textile factories who have modified their production lines to produce the materials we are lacking, shields made with 3D printers and even the return of domestic sewing machines to make protective masks.
This crisis has shown that, no matter how much we are in favour of globalization, we cannot overlook our capacity to meet basic needs locally. This also applies to health, as well as food and energy. This does not mean that we need to be independent in everything, but we can be self-sufficient in networks and community.
Reduce — doing less and what’s important
This crisis has shown that it is possible to do less of everything and more of what’s essential. How many meetings could have been phone calls? How many car, airplane or train trips could we have avoided?
Is anyone actually missing doing the shopping? Or even in need of a new t-shirt or dress? When there is so much at stake we relativise the importance of the things we do (or used to do).
And if this art of magic that advertisers, marketeers and businesses use to give consumers a sense of need were applied to the call for a more responsible consumption? And if the potential of influencers and social media turned to promoting a more sustainable way of life?
If it is true that we have many years of a “crisis of values” to correct, it is also incredible to think about the power for good that this could be!
Give room and value to Nature
Maybe we don’t miss going to the shops but what about nature? Mountain-scapes, the sea breeze or the smell of the forest? Now that we value it more, will we take care of it better?
This is also an opportunity to rethink our relationship with nature, to stop seeing us as separate and independent entities and think about how we want to live in symbiosis with the planet that accommodates us.
One of the positive consequences of this crisis, that goes further than the fake news of the Venice canals full of swans or dolphins, is the fact that we are giving nature some time and space to breath.
There is a plan (or idea) that proposes turning 50% of the planet into a nature reserve. There can’t be a great amount of science behind the “50%”, but it also doesn’t seem necessary to me. We know that we must protect much more than the areas with protected species or biodiversity hotspots and that we need to go beyond the isolated sanctuaries creating conditions and corridors for species to move in, reproduce in and evolve in. This should be applied to the whole terrestrial, marine and aerial environment.
If we think about it, half of the planet for Nature and the other half for Man, is also assuming we have some kind of supremacy over all other species when, in the end, if we don’t act, it is our own existence that we are jeopardising.
We can choose to emerge from this crisis better and stronger but also more humane and conscious. In everything we do from now on, we are choosing the post-Covid world we want to build and live in.
