Interview with Pushpam Kumar, United Nations Environment Programme, Chief Environmental Economist.
Within weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, which has since spread around the globe. In addition to loss of lives, the virus has disrupted society and demobilized the global economy.
Meanwhile, efforts to contain the virus by restricting the movement have had a remarkable environmental impact. According to China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, data recorded between January and March 2020 reflects an 84.5 per cent increase in days with good air quality in 337 cities, and satellite data from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration shows a decline in nitrogen dioxide over China.
Pushpam Kumar is the Chief Environmental Economist at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In this interview, he explains the concept of trade-off analysis and the use of a trade-off paradigm in navigating the complex relationship between humans and nature.
What is trade-off analysis?
Trade-off analysis considers both the positive and negative impacts of human interventions on nature and observes the ways a situation changes when there is more of one thing and less of another.
How is trade-off analysis relevant to discussions of COVID-19?
Every crisis provides the opportunity to learn.
COVID-19–a virus that has been attributed to human interferences such as deforestation, encroachment on animal habitats and biodiversity loss–has led to a reported thousands of deaths in China. The subsequent lockdown of Hubei province contributed to a reduction in pollution that, according to a Stanford University researcher, may prevent 50,000 to 75,000 people from dying prematurely. This demonstrates a trade-off between consumption-driven society (and its interference with nature) and the resiliency of nature and ecosystems.
Regardless of its cause or origin, the emergence of COVID-19 has underscored the mutually-affective relationship between people and nature. Now, we must try to understand and appreciate the limits to which humans can push nature, before the impact is negative. Those limits must be embraced by our consumption and production aspiration. Read more…
