Are we on a sustainable path? A reflection on sustainability during COVID-19

During these troublesome times, a common discussion arises: Are we on a sustainable path?

Before answering the question, I have in mind an obvious event: the COVID-19 crisis, and the environmental foreseen consequences associated with it. Therefore, my position about the issue will be very conditioned through this unexpected perspective. Hence, let me begin.

Apart from needing to revisit many preconceptions about sustainability (being first the real accuracy of the Malthusian population catastrophe), I can say that, as common sense dictates, we are indeed on an unsustainable path; but assuming a more positive (and perhaps, naïve) approach, we are moving towards a sustainable path, but a dangerously slow pace. It is evident that a business-as-usual model of the world is pretty grim and characterized by scarcity. There is a clear consensus about it, even in the pre-COVID-19 years (López-Claros, 2016; Tallis, 2019).

As an optimistic, I can say yes, we can get on a sustainable path, but it would mean that we must focus on human development as much as we currently do on technological development. The only way to take successfully this road implies deciding how to cause growth (o even, regrowth) until each community (city, nation, region) is able to meet all the needs of all the people, with only the resources (artificial, and of course, natural) they manage. We must act at multiple scales in a simultaneous way, and we do not have to wait for the rest of the world to do it. In addition, this is a decision about awakening, giving up many things that represent a comfortable lifestyle (or its promise), thinking not only in ourselves but also in the sake and wellbeing of all the humanity (and all things, living and unanimated), because it is too late.

We must learn to balance the aspirations of our individual freedom with the need for cooperation to survive, when seeking a sustainable balance between those values with social and ecological responsibility, whenever we make decisions if we really want to clean up any unforeseen messes we have created, in a context of ever-increasing complexity. This means taking decisions right now; boosting clean energy, growing more food using less land and water, end overfishing (Tallis, 2019), and furthermost, sharing more and be happier with less stuff. All about this topic treats with the cooperation and taking responsibility for all the reasonably foreseeable consequences of (environmental) actions before taking them.

That is because the problem is not technology, are us if we do not take rational decisions (Bruce, 2008; Tallis, 2019): technologies are not neutral, they are a product of the society that created them and embody its values, aspirations and concerns. As Bruce (2009) soundly states, we are talking about a dilemma. Between a vision of humans as an instrument of the Creation, as apart from the rest of nature, endowed with a task to “subdue the earth and fill it” (Genesis 1: 27-28), and another vision, as a part of the same nature, set in a garden “to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2: 15).

This is very important nowadays, in the times of COVID-19. We are traveling through a phase of uncertainty, anxiety, and confusion. We need to be together to support each other, stay productive and stay safe, while continuing to achieve the sustainable development goals, which are experiencing an evident recoil because of the pandemic (Bell, Papp & Balachandar, 2020), with a tendency evident in previous years (Moyer & Hedden, 2019).

If something good must get from the current crisis, is a fresh appreciation for our collective dependence on the ecosystems of the natural world, the evident imbalance between humans and nature in a single community, the recognition of inequalities of life, burdening manly people with the least resources to confront the situation. Moreover, the networked forms of social cooperation essential to defeat a problem that will thrive anywhere until it is defeated everywhere (as wisely appreciates (McArthur, 2020).

References:

Bell, M., Papp, P., & Balachandar, V. (2020) Covid-19 and the continuing case for sustainability. Frontier economics. Retrieved from: http://www.frontier-economics.com/uk/en/news-and-articles/articles/article-i7223-covid-19-and-the-continuing-case-for-sustainability/#

Bruce, D. (2008, July 9) How sustainable are we? Facing the environmental impact of modern society. Embo Reports, 2008, July; 9 (Suppl. 1): S37-S40. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3327537/

López-Claros, A. (2016, June 21) Are we traveling on a sustainable development path? World Bank Blogs. Retrieved from: https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/are-we-travelling-sustainable-development-path

McArthur, J. (2020, October 21) Heeding the call to action: A sustainable path for humanity. Brookings. Retrieved from: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2020/10/21/heeding-the-call-to-action-a-sustainable-path-for-humanity/

 

Moyer, J. & Hedden, S. (2019, November 20). Are we on the right path to achieve the sustainable development goals? Elsevier. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X19303985

 

Tallis, H. (2019, August 30) A more sustainable path to 2050. The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved from: https://www.nature.org/en-us/magazine/magazine-articles/sustainable-future-2050/