Page 111 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2020

ARTICLE SAMENA TRENDS

ARTICLE

The Sustainability Agenda: Lessons Learned From The

Coronavirus

The corona crisis affects the sustainability
agenda in several ways, and this pandemic has
demonstrated that we, as a global society, need

to step up to make the world safer and more
sustainable. We must strive towards an inherently
resilient society built on collaboration and a stable
technological base.

The coronavirus constitutes possibly the most impactful global event of our
generation with immense loss of life and treasure, and we still do not know
the full impact of the pandemic.

And in the midst of this, the world continues to struggle with another global
existential threat, a climate that appears out of control, a global habitat that
is under relentless pressure, and untenable resource use. The virus affects
us personally and privately in ways that sustainability mostly has not but the
sustainability agenda is equally urgent and we must not lose sight of that
goal because we are dealing with this dangerous virus.

The question is, how will the Corona crisis impact the all-important work of
becoming more sustainable in everything that we do? Is it all just getting
Hans Lindeman worse, or is there a silver lining where we can actually improve our efforts of
Senior Advisor saving our planet? What can we learn from the current crisis, about how we
Devoteam should run or societies and the role of technology?

These are the questions I will explore in this article based on my research.

Common factors: 4 areas impacting both the virus and sustainability

First, we must look at the common factors between the state of the earth
and the corona crisis. My research has shown four main areas that have a
significant impact on both sustainability and the virus:

1. Continuing urbanization. One of the most prominent global sustainability
challenges, whether we are talking about climate change, ocean
acidification, inequality, or lack of resources, . comes from the virtually
exponential population growth we have seen in the last century. This
increased urbanization has also had a significant impact on the spread
of the corona virus, both in terms of number of cases and speed. The
current level of population density is an almost perfect scene on which to
spread the virus.

111 SEP-OCT 2020