Neither military power nor wealth can stop the destructive global spread of COVID-19, a tiny member of the Coronavirus family. Its full human impact and economic cost will not be known for months to come. The virus is only now spreading amongst the most vulnerable populations, the millions who are cramped into refugee camps, and the hundreds of millions who live in city slums or in poverty without proper sanitation or medical support. As the pandemic is unfolding, it is revealing human vulnerabilities and showcasing the importance of good leadership and well-functioning, universal social and health care systems.
While the current focus is on responding to the pandemic and on coping with its immediate effects, the lessons we will collectively learn from this crisis are equally if not more important, as we know that the next global crisis – the climate crisis – is already well under way, building up its destructive potential around the globe. This is of particular relevance for the younger generations. They will inherit the political and economic systems that are now being reshaped in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and their future is being mortgaged with enormous debt as governments are mobilizing unprecedented stimuli packages to avoid a deep recession.
There are at least four lessons we should learn from the pandemic:
1) Human history and natural history can no longer be separated – human health and the health of the planet go together
“Mother nature is striking back, and humans are caught on their back feet,” is how a senior finance executive recently summed up the pandemic. Indeed, the pandemic should above all be a wakeup call that our wellbeing is closely tied to the health of the planet. Despite scientists’ warnings about the high risk of animal-borne infectious diseases, we continue to destroy natural habitats. The evidence of the destructive human impact on the natural environment from water to soil to the air, and its negative impact on human health and wellbeing, is overwhelming. Yet, we find it difficult to change course. Despite the many warning signs, humans have become a geophysical force as we continue to destroy, pollute and poison on a massive scale the very foundation we depend on for survival and wellbeing. Every year we dump over 30 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere. We destroy entire animal and plant species at an alarming rate. We have cut down forests everywhere. We poison the soil and the water, and our garbage covers the floors of the oceans. And yes, every year, we kill over 100 billion animals to feed our carnivorous appetites. Our industrial-era mindset of ‘growth at any cost’ has become a recipe for self-destruction.
We have long known that markets cannot succeed in failing societies. Now we must learn that healthy societies and markets depend on the health of the natural environment. We know in principle what needs to be done and we have the means to do it: shifting the goalposts and the incentives that put a premium on clean and healthy growth instead of subsidizing the destruction of the environment, and putting decarbonization of economic activity and material reuse center stage, while restoring natural habitats and forests. Read more…