APRIL 29 — The outpouring of support shown by various communities is extremely encouraging from the prepping of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) for frontliners to the distribution of food to the vulnerable communities- elderly, homeless, disabled. Indeed, the Covid-19 pandemic has elicited a global response unlike anything that we have seen before. It is a type of response for the most part characterised by care, compassion and most importantly connection at an unprecedented pace, I must say.
Yet, as rightly pointed out by some scholars, what happens in the coming months could go either way.
The first scenario. As the pandemic wanes and people start weighing in on the economic consequences, we might fall into the trap of short-term fixes, throwing away longer-term aspirations which will have unintended impacts on the environment. All the short-term benefits that we have heard about from the media about having cleaner air, clearer waterways, lesser emissions will all become history. Instead, we will be seeing an escalation of environmental pollution as industries intensify their activities to make up for lost time and productivity. Already, we have seen how in some countries, environmental legislations have been laxer to allow room for more intensified industrialisation.
The second scenario. We could turn this crisis into a real opportunity. Use the time that we have during this lockdown phase to think about ways to re-build our society and economy. Re-think our systems and seize the opportunity to create win-win situations that will benefit both the environment and help people thrive. Economic bailouts should not be a “free-pass” but rather one that comes with conditions for polluting companies to make a commitment to reduce their emissions or to contribute towards environmental preservation. This is especially important, because the current positive effects that we see in the environment is only for a short-time and in Asia-Pacific, the dangers of climate change could not be clearer. Impacts from summer heatwaves to raging bushfires (seen in Australia in December 2019) and rising sea levels have become everyday realities across the region. With the climate crisis threatening homes, livelihoods and entire ecosystems holding global temperatures below 1.5 degrees has never been more critical. Increased deforestation has brought us uncomfortably closer to wildlife animals further increasing the risk of transmission of diseases to humans. We need to fix this problem before it’s all too late.
I sincerely hope that we get to see the second scenario becoming a reality. We can’t afford to go back to our old ‘normal’ ways because ‘normal’ was precisely the problem.
*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
