The Other Side of Apocalypse

It happens in wartime--it happened in World War II for certain, and the Great War, and to some extent during Vietnam.  It happened during the Great Depression.  In the middle of an apocalyptic time, people begin looking beyond it, looking for the silver lining, the changes for the better it might clarify and enable.

The other side of this current apocalypse--of this current revelation--could be a better future.  It's a long way yet to that other side, but that discussion is already beginning.

Anna Marie Slaughter's piece in the New York Times, referenced in a previous post, is one example.  She writes:

"The coronavirus, and its economic and social fallout, is a time machine to the future. Changes that many of us predicted would happen over decades are instead taking place in the span of weeks."

Several of the innovations she mentioned involve increased use of technologies for remote learning, teleconferencing and 3-D printing.  Both remote learning and teleconferencing reduce the need to travel, which helps clear the air and reduces greenhouse gases.  3-D printing is one of the ways communities can reduce dependence for vital supplies on global supply chains. The question is whether universities and businesses go back to the old model or better integrate remote learning and teleconferencing in a new synthesis.

(Other questions are whether any of this stuff works, and how to make them work better.  For those answers, this crisis provides lots of data.)

This crisis, she writes, also increases our awareness of the vital roles of caregivers in our society as well as our economy, she writes, which should lead to valuing them more with better pay.  As for the economy in general, today's crisis argues for more attention to guaranteed incomes, as well as more investment in better broadband capabilities for everyone.  She concludes

"The future is here, whether we like it or not. Although a future dependent on the current federal government looks bleak, we can vote to change that in November. Right now, we can follow the lead of local and regional leaders and step up ourselves. Through the virus, we are rediscovering the dark side of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” But we can also rediscover what is possible and what we are capable of as a nation. We can use this crisis to create a better America."

Another example of this kind of thinking is found in a compilation piece in Politico, in which 34 experts forecast how the coronavirus crisis will change the world.  A surprising number of them speculate that despite the horrors it is likely to inflict this year, the crisis and response to it could change the future for the better.

Some of the topics discussed are: "A new kind of patriotism," "A decline in polarization," "a return to faith in serious experts," new forms of reform, a greater appreciation of government, as well as a host of accelerated changes involving technology, new economic models and a society organized more on empathy than hostility.

Certainly some of these reflect the writer's wishlist, and some of them clearly have a dark side.  And there is a long way to go before we get to the other side, in which we will all be tested.  Already we're seeing racism, misinformation and anger erupting, and we're likely to see more.

But some changes, if not transformations, are inevitable, and some offer particular opportunities.  I can't help thinking that all that's being done that was previously unthinkable, was specifically cited as reasons why we weren't addressing the climate crisis with the required urgency.  Giles Tremlett suggests that those governments that acted comprehensively and with urgency to address the Covid crisis provide models for how to address the climate crisis.

Meanwhile--thanks to the vehicles not on the freeways, and the factories not polluting-- the air quality in Los Angeles is suddenly good.  Air pollution is suddenly declining everywhere.  The water is suddenly clear in the canals of Venice, and wildlife is returning.  Locals are talking about controlling tourism there rather than letting it overwhelm them again.

We've known for years that pandemics were becoming more possible for many reasons, but specifically because of global heating--especially those associated with insect-borne diseases. And while I haven't seen anything yet that links this virus to the climate crisis, it has been causally linked to the other paramount (and related) ecological catastrophe of our time--the mass extinction of life forms on the planet.

“We invade tropical forests and other wild landscapes, which harbour so many species of animals and plants – and within those creatures, so many unknown viruses,” David Quammen, author of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Pandemic, recently wrote in the New York Times. “We cut the trees; we kill the animals or cage them and send them to markets. We disrupt ecosystems, and we shake viruses loose from their natural hosts. When that happens, they need a new host. Often, we are it.”

This view more than suggests that this is not the last viral pandemic we can expect.  For a better future, and for a longer one, the twin ecological threats to the survival of humanity and all life as we know it--the climate crisis and species extinction--must be addressed with a similar urgency, when we get to the other side of this apocalypse.

Update 3/28: Meehan Crist has an oped in the NYTimes, "What the Coronavirus Means for Climate Change" that is along these lines of looking to the future through this new lens.  But towards the end of this piece is a section about the effects of the suddenly clean air in Chinese cities, usually swamped in smoke and industrial pollution:

"In China, just two months of reduced pollution is likely to have saved the lives of 4,000 children under the age of 5 and 73,000 adults over the age of 70, writes Marshall Burke, an assistant professor in Stanford's earth system science department."  

I'm sure there is more to be said about climate crisis, public health and proportionality.