What is the first thing you are going to do “post-COVID”, when quarantine is lifted and life goes back to some sense of “normal”? Most people have said that the first thing they plan to do is go out to a restaurant or go on a trip. While this isolation has certainly been hard, there has been a revival in ecosystems globally. Ozone gaps are closing, air quality is improving, and species are reclaiming their habitats back. So, what will happen to this surge in revitalization when humankind decides to jump back in?
Lessons form the pandemic
Several countries around the world are asking themselves this question, how do you remain focused on climate change after this pandemic? Sustainability had been a hot topic of conversation before the sudden crisis, and many are maintaining that it should remain the core focus afterwards. Others believe that we should focus on rebuilding the economy – at all costs, even environmental. Climate change and pandemics are connected in many ways, both behaving similarly to external shifts. They are both physical shocks (by contrast to financial shocks) that translate in a series of socioeconomic impacts. Understanding the similarities and differences between the two will help us guide our future actions. The goal is to find a happy medium between environmental and economic sustainability, a difficult task but one that has multiple positives.
One thing that this pandemic has provided is a window into teleworking and work-from-home aspects of jobs. Formerly, working from home was an exception but since this pandemic many companies are readdressing how they can utilize employees from home. This could mean that post-COVID, we’ll see a reduction in transportation emissions and overall demand. In addition, scientific thought and opinion may grow post-pandemic given that the explanations from government agencies and representatives have been menial at best.
Many are hoping for the assessment of preventative measures so that should anything like this happen again we can be better prepared as a country. Creating ideas for sustainable, and affordable, household items could be the progress we’ve needed to push a greener attitude to everyday life. Climate change does not only affect the environments we live in, but it also has an effect on our social environments like the economy. Building a governmental structure to address these changes is the first step in utilizing this opportunity once quarantine has been lifted.
We have a real opportunity here to change the conversation about products we consume and emissions we expel on a daily basis. The terms of the Paris Agreement outlined new or updated National Determined Contributions, or NDCs, which came from each country that participated in a five-year cycle. Since COVID hit, these policies have been on hold, but many believe that the strategies outlined are still in question. These plans should still be given consideration once the “new normal” begins and discussions can resume.
There is still a need for countries to make plans about sustainability post-COVID, but now hopefully there is a deeper look at what we can do in the case of another pandemic. These things are all connected, just like within an ecosystem. How we react immediately after will determine if we are doomed to make the same mistake again. Or, more hopefully, if we can learn to work within sustainable new world.
