The Coronavirus is an unfolding crisis, but eventually, could it help save us from ourselves?
There is one crucial lesson that we can already draw from the unfolding global Corona crisis: if we want to survive global challenges as a species and as democratic societies, we have to invest in our future together. Especially in a time of isolation and distancing, we need to invest in closer connection for mutual prosperity.
From headlines to lockdowns, and into our daily lives and changing realities, the Corona virus outbreak will be with us for some months to come. Updates flow in by the hour, and we all wonder what will come next. We should all follow expert guidelines, and do what we can in solidarity and empathy with others, especially those most at risk. Inevitably, as we sit at home and while away, there is also room for reflection.
In November of last year, just a few months before this outbreak began, the Netflix series “Explained” published an episode about the spread of pandemics across the globe. It could happen any day, they said, and we should be ready, but we’re not. In 2015, Bill Gates gave a TED talk where he warned that a global pandemic would risk killing millions, and we should prepare for it as we would a war. Only those who experienced earlier pandemics prepared properly. Our societies only respond when the crisis is already upon us.
There is a familiar metaphor of the frog in hot water. Humanity has been sitting and stewing in the juices of climate change and failing political and economic systems for decades now, but because the change is gradual and complex, we have not responded. Now Corona has created an immediate tangible threat, and suddenly we have moved to respond to it drastically.
It’s clear to anyone watching this unfold that we need serious investment in our healthcare systems to be able to prepare for global pandemics of this magnitude. These viruses will inevitably spring up and spread in an interconnected globe with billions of people and billions more farm animals. But this is far from the only area that requires urgent investment.
Our globalised society is now at the crossroads of several critical decisions which will define human development for generations to come, each of them interconnected and arguably as important.
Our democracies need to be redefined and reinforced in the face of rising authoritarianism that could tear us apart. We have such extreme wealth inequalities that a handful of men own more wealth than half of the world’s population, and that’s a situation that will eventually inevitably make democracy impossible. Then there are new emerging technologies that can be designed and used for better or worse, as we’re seeing in the use of surveillance during this crisis. We urgently need to make sure emerging technologies are designed with our human rights forged intrinsically into their digital DNA.
And most urgent of all, ongoing climate change, at the current rate, will lead to environmental collapse, and take all of us with it.
Each of these problems are just as symptomatic of a global society as the Corona virus outbreak. The difference is that the flu is familiar and tangible that affects us all here and now, we all know what it feels like, and how it could affect our loved ones. Climate change or democracy on the other hand, are intangible, abstract or gradual, and we cannot tell intuitively where they will lead us. We have not made the resources needed available, we have not invested to survive. Not anywhere near.
However, the Corona virus shows us what an immediate global crisis looks like, and what a breakdown in our daily lives looks like. The abstract and intangible becomes real with clear-cut force. This must be a wake up call for decision-makers and citizens around the world not to wait for more severe breakdowns, but to make the investment now.
For decades now governments and leaders have prioritised short term gains in the polls and elections over any form of long-term thinking for the common good. The challenges we face now are existential and we need a fundamental change of approach. We need to make our societies truly sustainable and future-proof.
To avoid upcoming crises we need investment in health and public services, in democracy, education and civic engagement, and we need large-scale investment in making the Sustainable Development Goals a reality now rather than later. Now is a chance for us to learn that lesson, whether we do remains to be seen.
