Without a doubt this is one of the most calamitic Canada Days in a hundred years and certainly the most challenging and uncertain in a generation. This crisis – climate change compounded by a global pandemic compounded by a modern civil rights movement – presents communities around the world with an opportunity for reinvention. Whether we double-down on subsidizing fossil fuels with taxpayer dollars or transform our economy with everything from green technology to bicycle friendly cities, we have a moment to redefine the way people live, work and play. Here are five ways this crisis is an opportunity for positive change.
Opportunity for positive change
This TED Talk from Economist Kate Raworth is two years old. When you watch it, you’ll realize how much trouble we’re in – you know, because the Artic is experiencing the hottest summer on record and systemic racism and crippling inequality is resulting in mass demonstrations around the world. Our communities aren’t thriving. They are burning.
As Gavin MacRae notes in the Watershed Sentinel, “…for the planet and climate, coronavirus offers the unexpected possibility of radical, beneficial change.” MacRae goes on to highlight perspectives on what potential change could mean for humanity:
As journalist Nafeez Ahmed writes, ‘Amid the unprecedented crisis, we face a unique opportunity to transition to a regenerative civilizational paradigm which no longer breaches environmental boundaries in ways that make pandemics like this inevitable.’ Or simply, as journalist Amy Westervelt tweeted, ‘What better time to fix shit, what better time to rebuild, rethink than when EVERYTHING is broken?’
We have an opportunity to make our societies thrive be re-thinking everything from money to energy to governance.
Re-invigorate locality
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the precariousness of global supply chains. Poor people, small businesses and especially folks working across the “informal food economy” will suffer because of lockdowns and from the disruption of globalization. Whether you love farmers markets, craft breweries or chic eateries, buying local has long been a fad; however, according to journalist Joanne Will, human connections through food are something we all need in this crisis:
Robust local food systems offer immunity from food shortages, such as those caused by recent hoarding behaviour or what will surely occur if borders are further tightened by our neighbours to the south. And buying food from a local farmer adds a human connection to the purchase, increasing feelings of well-being and connectedness to nature, the farmers and each other.
You can get to know your neighbourbood and local businesses a bit better by exploring them on your bicycle, just like 50 billion other Canadians who are finally realizing that bikes are ideal modes of transportation throughout urban environments.
Humanize systems
By 2021 over 60% of the North American workforce will work mostly from home (or remotely). Offices will never look the same. Around the world some organizations are seeing their employee engagement results skyrocket because of how they are showing up for their employees as well as their members, clients and customers. Others are not showing up so well and, I think, customers will remember such things when we’re more flush with capital and we’ll vote with our feet to hold employers accountable.
Systemic racism exists in our institutions and an outcome of these unprecedented, chaotic times is that more folks on the margins, especially Black and indigenous communities, have a platform, have a voice, and have allies. We haven’t experienced an opportunity to make our world more equitable and just in generations and change is coming.
Community >>> Capitalism
These days it’s communities – neighbours, friends, schools, local and provincial governments (and some federal ones, too) – that are creating value and serving people. The free market and neoliberal capitalism is turning out to be unforgiving and not working for everyone. As George Monbiot wrote in The Guardian, “you can watch neoliberalism collapsing in real time.” Compounding things like loneliness, neighbourliness, stress, and connection, the coronavirus is revitalizing a sense of community. According to The Conversation‘s Fay Bound Alberti, our re-commitment to a “shared obligation and commitment” to each other – and not just our shared interest – will build the resilience that the idea of community needs to thrive:
Yet something quite profound is also happening in terms of our relationships with people we don’t know. Despite negativity about the societal impacts of COVID-19 – from increased levels of loneliness to the limitations of social media – we are seeing some positive and unexpected results, including widespread outpourings of charity, togetherness and empathy for complete strangers. We might even be seeing a grassroots redefinition of what “community” means in the 21st century.
From “forgotten” rural French towns to “the home unit”, our concerns are becoming local and we are building human connections accordingly. As Monbiot argues, “I have the sense that something is taking root now, something we have been missing: the unexpectedly thrilling and transformative force of mutual aid.”
Embrace idleness
If human beings worked a little bit less – or were paid to stay home – we would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by stopping rush hour traffic. Self-confidence and wellness would improve. Neighbourhoods would become because learning and sharing would probably flourish. We are busy and distracted because of our consumption culture and the more we think we need the more we take from the planet. When we’re idle we don’t spend, take, plow, cut, mine, ship, or harvest, which is probably why we’ve seen a record drop in global CO2 emissions during the pandemic lockdown.
Perhaps the best way to focus out busyness or the greatest value that we can produce is to be a little bit more still and a little bit less consumed by consumption and its pace.
F*ck sustainability
This human experiment isn’t sustainable. It was 38 degrees in Siberia last week and 2020 will most likely end as the hottest year on record since we’re been keeping records. It’s no longer enough for communities to strive for carbon neutrality or diversity.
Cities need to pay back our carbon debt by re-vitalizing polluted rivers and concreted urban spaces with oxygen-making trees. The world needs regeneration, not sustainability. We need to put back into the Earth what’s been taken out because sustaining our extraction and consumption isn’t actually sustainable – by all accounts climate change is a greater threat to humanity then the coronavirus, but we don’t experience the impact at scale or in real-time.
Organizations need to use diversity as a springboard to inclusion, belonging and equity. Simply having a diverse workforce isn’t enough and sustaining such a practice is hampering everything from creativity to engagement to the bottom-lines. Communities in our worklife should be made up of people who all feel a little bit uncomfortable because that means power is being more equitably distributed.
What will you do to ensure that we never return to normal?