What COVID-19 Means For The Future Of Capitalism, Democracy And Sustainability
John Elkington
At Volans, we have been talking about the accelerating collision between breakdown and breakthrough trajectories since our Breakthrough Capitalism Forum back in 2014. Whether or not it meets the criteria Nassim Nicholas Taleb set for a “Black Swan,” many have labelled COVID-19 that way. What follows is a very personal listing of coverage I have been reading both of Black Swan challenges and potential Green Swan solutions.
Consulting oracles
When the world goes berserk, we consult oracles. As the virus began to get its teeth and claws in, I was in Greece, visiting the ancient site of Delphi, where the priestesses who voiced the Oracle opined on virtually any subject for hundreds of years. The site closed the next day, but I came away with an even stronger sense of how hard humans have always found it to predict the future.
Still, certain elements of our common future are clear — and have become very much clearer as the coronavirus has torn through our economies and societies. I have tried to capture some of the key elements and trajectories in my twentieth book, Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism (Fast Company Press, April 2020). Key themes are the future of capitalism, democracy and sustainability.
The book is the latest output of our Tomorrow’s Capitalism Inquiry. Ahead of the book’s launch on April 7, here’s some of the media coverage of the COVID-19 “Black Swan” crisis that we have found particularly insightful in relation to our rapidly evolving “Green Swan” change agenda.
Introduction
The coming shift from Black Swan catastrophes to Green Swan solutions:
COVID-19 has been labelled as a Black Swan event, coming out of the blue for many people (even though such pandemics have long been predicted) and triggering exponentially negative outcomes.
The inverse of a Black Swan, Volans has long argued, is a Green Swan — triggering exponentially positive outcomes.
My new book, to be launched on April 7 2020 by Fast Company Press, is called Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism.
And here is an early review by Roger Trapp from Forbes.
Coverage of Black Swans
Whether or not COVID-19 is a “Black Swan”, it will spur “Green Swan” solutions:
Elastic bands have their limits. Our economies and societies, too. The shock to the global economy from Covid-19 has been faster, and more severe than the 2007/2009 global crisis, and even the beginning of the Great Depression.
Books we bought even before the pandemic hit: The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread — and Why They Stop, Adam Kucharski; Pale Rider by Laura Spinney, on the “Spanish flu” of 1918; and for a list of novels covering plagues, see a “coronavirus lockdown reading list” here.
Coronavirus as a “Black Swan”: see Sequoia Capital’s take.
This is not a Black Swan, Azeem Azhar in Exponential View.
Quarter of world’s population under lockdown.
And Nasim Nicholas Taleb agrees.
The Economist is tracking the outbreak.
And so are Bloomberg.
Mistakes Italy made, via HBR: learning is vital.
Europe’s darkest hour since WW2.
Tech giants pitch in, manufacturing ventilators and other necessities.
Charities face fundraising “apocalypse” (behind paywall).
Nature is sending us a message, says UN environment chief.
Charles Eisenstein on the social conditions that led to the outbreak.
What we can learn from complexity science.
China tries to end wildlife trade.
Is factory farming to blame for coronavirus?, by Laura Spinney, author of Pale Rider, see above. The route of the pandemic are more complicated than we might have thought: bats > pangolins > humans, by way of factory farms and urban livestock.
Spain calls for new Marshall Plan from EU states to drive recovery.
If we are bailing out businesses, they should bail out the planet.
Virus fightback will make lasting changes to world economies.
Coronavirus aggravates class divides in Brazil.
The endgame and aftermath in the USA, by Ed Yong in the Atlantic.
Power, inequality, nationalism: how virus will change the world — five challenges countries face.
How pandemic can make the world better, by Peter Frankopan (but behind a paywall).
Early coverage of Green Swans
Some commentary on Green Swans, whether or not the term is used:
The post that launched the quest for Green Swans.
The first Green Swan video, produced by Atlas of the Future and Volans.
Greenhouse PR selects Green Swans for its 10 “must read” climate books of 2020.
Launch of the Green Swan Awards at the Tomorrow’s Capitalism Forum, January 10 2020.
Black swan of COVID-19 dents Green Swan of renewable energy.
Business transforms
One of the biggest influences on my thinking about accelerated industry transformations was Lester Brown’s account of what happened in the USA during WW2. Lester Brown covered the WWII conversion of industry to meet Axis challenge, raising question whether they would do the same now in the face of the climate emergency.
Expect a shift in focus from efficiency to resilience.
Other transitions that business is now embarking on include the following:
Oil prices go negative as collapsing demand and oversupply force industry to consider paying to get rid of the black stuff (behind a paywall).
In Canada, heavy oil prices are below the costs of shipping the product.
Are we seeing peak supply chain fragmentation?
World Economic Forum on the shift to remote working.
Companies switch from making iPhones and perfumes to masks and sanitizers.
Fashion houses step up, says CNN.
Amazon auditions as the new ‘Red Cross’.
But can government transform?
China finds restarting economy harder than shutting it down.
Poverty as a threat multiplier.
Economists say do whatever it takes.
Will COVID-19 usher in a new era of climate politics?
Pandemic offers opportunity to do right by climate, but chances are we won’t take it.
The tragedy of two failing superpowers (China and USA), by Martin Wolf of the Financial Times.
Implications of new forms of surveillance could endanger precious freedoms.
Interesting perspective on “3 cleavages” — between security and liberty, between China and the US, and between the young and old.
How governments can tackle the parallel “infodemic”.
Will the public or private sector dominate the new essential infrastructures? See the last item in the previous section on Amazon auditioning as the new ‘Red Cross’.
World Bank on how to engineer a sustainable recovery.
Surge of pressure on governments to attach green conditionality to stimulus and recovery plans.
