Covid-19 and Possibilities for a More Sustainable World

Saskia Braden and Caitlin Monsky

Earth is screaming at us. For decades, we, as a global community, have been oblivious to the language of extinctions, storms, and raging flames. Now, the novel coronavirus has joined the throng. Although the ordinary observer may not recognize Covid-19 as both a symptom and beneficiary of our lack of environmental action, its potency belies its exigency. Over the past year, the cloud of the pandemic has spread to every doorstep, restaurant, and city skyline on the globe. As it spreads, the virus is changing humanity’s behavior on an unprecedented scale. Throughout this intensely painful period, we need to make the most of the lessons that Covid-19 can teach. No one wished for this pandemic’s destruction, but it would be a grave mistake not to seize its few environmental silver linings. 

The global measures enacted against the coronavirus have unwittingly forced many of us into the eco-friendliest behaviors of our lifetimes. One might even say that we are living Bill McKibben’s dream, one of the localized, sustainable communities he laid out in his book Earth. People are staying home to social distance, and our transportation emissions are dropping significantly. We are less willing to waste food when getting more is unreliable or dangerous, and our consumerist cycle has ground to halt under the weight of the economic recession and supply chain disruptions. Society is learning to get by without the things we once thought we needed. These changes are wonderful, but the problem will be learning how to implement them permanently after the health crisis. Now is the moment to put the world on pause and take a hard look at our actions—a time to reboot our lifestyles to something greener.

Covid-19 has provided us with some more general, yet still potent lessons for climate change action. Most nations' bumbling responses have reminded us the importance of preparation, effective governments, and timeliness. Delays while people search for the ever-elusive “perfect” solution are typically disastrous, both when it comes to viral illness and the melting of ice caps. Many of the same groups who deny climate change denied the severity of the coronavirus in the early months. We need to learn that facts and science are real and need to be acted upon with alacrity. Failure to internalize this lesson will be fatal in more ways than one. Furthermore, these crises have once again traced the complex lines of our global inequities. The poorest groups are regularly hit the hardest, whether it be by pandemics or climate disasters. The worst has yet to come for developing countries, many of whom will not have widespread access to the vaccine until 2023. We need to focus on helping the world’s most vulnerable communities and remember that neither viruses nor greenhouse gases respect borders.

Winston Churchill once begged his fellow leaders: “Don’t let a good crisis go to waste.” While we must be extremely wary of calling the world’s current suffering an opportunity, we are at a point in our history where global rebuilding will involve our most important decisions yet. Sustainable development is the most efficient, logical path forward. Moreover, it is crucial that we acknowledge that investing in our futures is not the same thing as utilizing a crisis for political leverage. As Ingrid Gabriela Hoven of the World Bank said, “We have never had the opportunity to move so much money at once.” In many ways, the coronavirus has destroyed the worlds’ economic and social systems. Rebuilding will not be an easy process, and it will have to involve a reimagining of all that we have taken for granted. The changes global society will make in the aftermath of the pandemic will persist for a long time to come. It could not be more crucial that we use this moment to make progress on our sustainable development goals. Studies have shown that the most effective interventions take place during moments of change. So, let’s tie aid packages to stricter environmental regulations, create jobs that reconstruct our ecosystems, and build a strong global support network that values sustainability as well as public health. We need to form long-term systems and invest in our futures instead of gazing at the waning mirror of a fossil-reliant past. President Biden’s infrastructure plan is a good start, but we can go further. We must take to heart the lessons in responsible behavior that we have learnt throughout this trying past year.

Ultimately, the coronavirus cannot be separated from our globe’s biggest environmental crises. The disease’s most prevailing origin theory, that it first made the jump from animals to humans in a Wuhan live animal market, brings wildlife conservation and trade policies into sharp focus. Zoonotic diseases are becoming increasingly frequent as humans have increased contact with wildlife. It is for good reason that one of the wisest phrases in conservation is to “keep the wild, wild.” Covid-19 is yet another example of how crucial it is to assemble stricter regulations around the illegal animal trade, live markets, and other forms of humanity’s war on biodiversity. This link between pandemics and environmental destruction becomes even more apparent when one considers that 25 to 50 percent of all pharmaceutical products come from genetic material in our biome. As we tackle the problem of vaccinating the globe and continue to look for effective Covid treatments, we would do well to remember that our solutions are heavily reliant upon Mother Nature.

This pandemic has brought upon a brutal reckoning to comprehend how hard it is for civilization to grapple with the chaos of nature. Although we try to avert our eyes, we have begun to realize that we are at Mother Nature’s mercy. It is an unwelcome lesson that we cannot alter ecological forces to our will and erase all unknowns. The reality is that nature is unknown. In an interview for Orion Magazine, Johnathan Letham once said, "[The world is] a system of chaos and oppositional forces and transformations. It’s a philosophical conceit that Earth is in balance.” As we struggle with our global pain, we need to remember that it is not disingenuous to make the most out of a difficult situation. In fact, creative adaptation has been and will continue to be the only way humanity can survive.

Bibliography:

Maxmen, Amy. “WHO Report Into COVID Pandemic Origins Zeroes in On Animal Markets, Not Labs.”  Nature, 2021 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00865-8

Webinar: Confronting Climate Change in the Global COVID-19 Recovery. Dir. Samantha Gross, Ingrid-Gabriela Hoven, Todd Stern, and Pablo Vieira. Webinar: Confronting Climate Change in the Global COVID-19 Recovery. Brookings, 20 Apr. 2020. Web. 17 Apr. 2021. <https://www.brookings.edu/events/webinar-confronting-climate-change-in-the-global-covid-19-recovery/?utm_campaign=Events%3A+COMM>.

Henriques, Martha. "Will Covid-19 Have a Lasting Impact on the Environment?" BBC Future. BBC, 27 Mar. 2020. Web. <https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200326-covid-19-the-impact-of-coronavirus-on-the-environment>.

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United Nations Climate and Environment. "First Person: COVID-19 Is Not a Silver Lining for the Climate, Says UN Environment Chief." United Nations. United Nations, 5 Apr. 2020. Web. <https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1061082>.