The future of sustainability in the context of COVID-19
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THE WORLD AFTER COVID-19: EARLY LESSONS
The future of sustainability in the context of COVID-19 Donna-Maree` Cawthorn
, Alexandra Kennaugh, Sam M. Ferreira
Received: 3 August 2020 / Revised: 20 October 2020 / Accepted: 24 October 2020
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis emanating both from a virus (SARS-CoV-2) and from the drastic actions to contain it. Here, we reflect on the immediate responses of most world powers amid the pandemic chaos: totalitarian surveillance and nationalist isolation. Drawing on published literature, we consider measures such as wildlife-use bans, lockdowns and travel restrictions, along with their reverberations for people, economies and the planet. Our synthesis highlights significant shortfalls of applying command-and-control tactics in emergencies. For one, heavy-handed bans risk enormous unintended consequences and tend to fail if they lack legitimacy or clash with people’s values. Furthermore, reactive and myopic strategies typically view the pandemic as a stand-alone crisis, rather than unravelling the complex interplay of nature-society interactions through which zoonotic diseases originate. A return to adaptive management approaches that recognise root causes and foster socio-ecological resilience will be essential to improve human and planetary health and mitigate future pandemics. Keywords Adaptive management COVID-19 Emerging disease Nationalist isolation Totalitarian surveillance Wildlife trade Zoonosis
INTRODUCTION The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2), is likely the greatest crisis facing humanity since World War II (Kickbusch et al. 2020). Since identification of the first human infection in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 (Li et al. 2020), the disease has spread to over 200 countries, caused
[39.5 million confirmed cases and claimed over 1.1 million lives worldwide (as of 18 October 2020; WHO 2020), with little sign of abating. Health care systems have consequently been stretched to their limits, resulting in rationing of scarce medical resources and precarious tradeoffs on human lives (Emanuel et al. 2020). The devastating consequences of the pandemic, however, extend far beyond the immediate health crisis. Drastic government measures taken to ‘flatten the curve’ – including lockdowns, travel bans and militarised enforcement—have unravelled the fabrics of everyday life, while simultaneously crippling economies, impacting on human wellbeing, and impinging on people’s basic rights (Nay 2020; Nicola et al. 2020). COVID-19 is the third coronavirus-related epidemic to emerge from a spillover from wild animals to humans, following SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in 2003, and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) in 2012 (Petrosillo et al. 2020). These concerns, coupled with COVID-19’s possible link with a Wuhan ‘wet market’ (Li et al. 2020), have reignited a worldwide debate about the potential human health threats posed by wildlife trade and consumption, and prompted several co
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