Global time out: could two wrongs make a right?
Yorgo Lykouria, Creative Director at Rainlight, looks at the real bigger picture – and why now is the time to be proactive rather than reactive.
History repeats itself. It also informs us, if we choose to listen. In 1918 we had the Spanish flu, which is estimated to have killed 50 million people (2.75% of the world’s population at that time). In the 21st century we have seen the horrors of Ebola, SARS and MERS affecting 30 or so countries.
Bill Gates – one of the most well respected minds of our time – warned several years ago that the world was unprepared for the pandemic we are now faced with.
So why didn’t we listen? We live at such a fast pace, chasing the thrill of success and enjoying the rewards, that we don’t see (or don’t want to see) the problems. To our great forfeiture, we become reactive rather than proactive. This has left us with an unprecedented global emergency that has the potential to devastate the world economy and the health we take for granted.
Running parallel with the COVID-19 crisis is the climate emergency, again decades in the making. It is a problem we are still unwilling and unprepared to solve with any sense of urgency.
In 1963, Buckminster Fuller wrote: ‘The future is a choice between Utopia and oblivion. If we choose oblivion, we can go right on leaving our fate to our political leaders. If we choose Utopia, we must initiate an enormous education program – immediately, if not sooner.’
Well, there was no reaction in 1963 and, 60 years on, we are still being selective about what we choose to act on.
Like any tough times, there are lessons to be learnt, and I am wondering whether this enforced pause is calling for the developed world to stop and examine our motives. What is truly motivating us? If it is making money, we can surely couple greater aspirations that elevate our humanity in order to build a sustainable civilisation. It is uncomfortable to see the anguished cries of a teenager being ridiculed although, in my opinion, Greta Thunberg is a voice of reason and an absolute hero and leader of our time.
Political motivation is often judged by the sliding scale of left wing or right wing. I have never seen a bird or airplane fly using one wing. We need bold business initiative, together with a balanced sustainable viewpoint. Now we need leadership, which will do the right thing at this very right time.
When our lives return to normal and we can walk out of our doors without fear, what kind of world do we want to create?
The current situation panics the markets because we use the narrow metric of GDP to measure growth. We can destroy the planet and still feel like winners as long as GDP points upwards; now is the time to move to a model that celebrates prosperity linked to sustainable growth.
This may seem utopian thinking but I cannot help but hope that this global pause just might be the emissions reduction our planet desperately needed while we lacked the courage and the tenacity to make change. The enforced slowdown by COVID-19 has led to an immediate reduction of pollutant emissions. If you take a look at any environmental maps since the virus took hold, in China particularly, air pollution has dramatically reduced. The dolphins and fish can be seen once again in Venice’s clear lagoons now that the waters are freed of the pollutants brought by excessive tourism, the Vaporetto and the speed boats churning up the seabed. The skies are clearing as air travel and road traffic diminishes. We are seeing how our planet regenerates if we would allow it to breathe again.
Climate change and pandemic viruses are huge quandaries of our time, and solutions aren’t simple, but while we have this downtime, we can be thinking about what we do next. We can ask ourselves, do we want Utopia or oblivion? The choice is ours.
As we temporarily surrender the liberties we usually enjoy with ease, such as flying to another country for business or for pleasure, dining in a wonderful restaurant, or spending a hedonistic evening at a theatre, concert or nightclub, we appreciate that our modern life is beautiful.
This temporary reduction in freedom could very easily become a more permanent state of affairs – all it takes is another virus that is a little more deadly, for the temperature of the earth to increase by a degree or two; the consequences would be devastating and each time harder to solve and reverse. Lest we forget, tipping points do exist.
We have too much to lose so, for all our sakes, let history teach us this time. Let’s rethink our future and commit to change through our actions, not just empty rhetoric. At this time, we are not isolated from each other – we are all in this together. When our lives return to normal and we can walk out of our doors without fear, what kind of world do we want to create?
