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Disabled people make up 15 procent of the global population. Their experience in participating in everyday life could have made our reaction to the coronavirus outbreak better. Think for example of remote working: Matthew Keegan, the writer of this piece, requested the possibility to work remotely in order to feel more comfortable, since he lives with a progressive neuromuscular condition – but that request was denied.
If more companies had been open to remote working in the past, they could have learned a lot on how to cope with this crisis. Also think about wider pavements or aisles in supermarkets that can provide access to wheelchairs and also make physical distancing distancing easier.
With many establishments and businesses closed and under lockdown, this could be a perfect time to make many offices and public spaces more accessible. If we remove barriers and listen to the needs of people with disabilities, we can create offices and cities that are better for everyone. Let’s not forget the other long-term crisis: climate change In: The Correspondent (7 May)
Climate change is like a pandemic in slow motion: the consequences are just as severe, but the disaster is taking place so slowly that we hardly notice any problems on a daily basis. What’s more, most of the consequences are out of sight: acidified oceans, dead coral reefs, biodiversity loss.
But there are crucial similarities between coronavirus and climate change as well. For instance, we all contribute to the problem, mostly unintentionally. And both crises require worldwide intervention because a lockdown in just one country is just as ineffective as a single nation bringing its carbon emissions to zero while it is still surrounded by polluting countries. Lockdowns worldwide stress the importance of public spaces In: The Conversation (5 May)
The importance of public space has never been as apparent as during the lockdowns – with people missing their walks or finding respite in parks for safe meetings at a distance. But the risk of the coronavirus is that we fear cities and people to hide away in our cars. This is the last thing we want to take away from this crisis, three Australian architecture scholars argue.
Social interactions are the lifeblood of cities, and they argue that this crisis can show us how to reclaim streets from car traffic. Several cities are already experimenting on a microscale, by creating larger bike lanes with traffic cones, for example. This can be affordable everywhere, if the right decisions are taken. Is the coronavirus crisis teaching us how to turn the tide of climate change? In: New Yorker (1 May)
This crisis compels us to experience what it is to be human in completely new ways. Suddenly, we are realising that we are all connected and that we depend on each other. Suddenly, we’re discovering that we can work together to protect the health of others, often people we don’t even know. We are temporarily sacrificing our freedom, because science is telling us that’s what we need to do right now. And politicians are actually listening to those scientists.
We are changing how we see ourselves and our place in the world. Those changes may be big enough to finally start taking serious action in response to the other existential crises that we face: the mass extinction of many animal species and the inexorable continuation of global warming. Why coronavirus should be eradicated everywhere – not just in western countries In: The Guardian (1 May)
The brightest minds in the world are all focused on finding a vaccine and treatments to eradicate (or at least contain) Covid-19. But the real test won’t be how quickly we can contain the virus in Europe, the US, or the UK, but whether we’ll eradicate it entirely – even in the poorest nations in the world.
Neil Singh is a primary care physician, and he outlines the injustice of cholera in this piece. The acute diarrhoeal disease has caused seven pandemics and given birth to global health as we know it. 200 years since the cholera pandemics began, more than 150 years since the bacteria was identified, and 60 years since an inexpensive treatment and vaccination regime were developed, this contagion is plaguing some of the poorest countries in the world as if none of that progress had ever happened.
If we allow global health to be funded and governed by the old colonial logic that is embedded in its current structures, the coronavirus story will play out in exactly the same way. And that is not global health success. The annoyed prophet who wants to stress-proof the world In: New Yorker (21 April)
How was it possible for the coronavirus crisis to go so terribly wrong all over the world? Statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb has two explanations: humanity as a whole has become too intertwined, and we have structured our economic systems in such a way that a single shock can cause a disastrous domino effect. How the crisis will change our views on innovation, privacy, and nature In: City Journal (3 April)
Are we in a phase where we are ruled by digital overlords, or do we need to rethink how the solutions work in controlling this pandemic? In this reflection of how western Europe and North America seem almost luddite in comparison to countries in Asia, a little op-ed looks at the benefits of technological progress compared to privacy concerns. The article shares examples of how Covid-19 has been managed in China and Singapore, amongst others. We aren’t just stopping coronavirus. We’re building a new world In: The Correspondent (1 April)
The coronavirus has forced us into an era of solidarity and rapid societal change. We have two tasks right now: 1. mitigating the economic and societal fallout and 2. building a new world.
The first will require immediate plans that allow us to thrive, not just survive. Bailing out the airline and cruise line industries, for example, will not mean that money reaches workers who have lost their jobs. In the long term, we need to be thinking forward, not reactionary.
Now is an excellent opportunity to decarbonise the economy and strengthen social safety nets. In practice, that means nationalising the fossil fuel and airline industries, starting public works projects on an enormous scale, and implementing universal basic income, while enshrining housing, jobs, and healthcare as human rights. What the cities of the future might look like In: The Guardian (26 March)
Soaring prices in big cities have forced people to live in smaller and smaller homes. That’s great for the climate: it’s more efficient in terms of energy use, and it leaves more space outside the cities for things like farming and renewable energy generation. But during a pandemic, tiny apartments may be disastrous – a virus spreads much faster in cramped urban conditions than in rural regions.
Now is the time to think about the cities of the future. For many professions, working from home offers an excellent alternative to crowded open-plan offices. Could thousands of workers start living outside the city – not least in view of future outbreaks? And will we be using technology to monitor the remaining city-dwellers more closely, as China and South Korea have done? Are packed cafes and concert halls still a viable concept? Topics like these should feature prominently in the public debate in the next few weeks and months. Despite everything, the corona crisis is an opportunity to reform our economies In: The Correspondent (19 March)
All signs indicate that the coronavirus is pulling us into economic recession. This also offers opportunities for restructuring the world: for example, by establishing an economy that is not based on the concept of infinite growth. Prosperity and well-being no longer go hand in hand, despite what people once believed. The US, which is much richer than Poland, for example, is facing a declining life expectancy.
It’s time for a post-growth era. Within 30 years, global CO2 emissions need to be slashed to zero to avoid a climate catastrophe. We need to cut down on buying consumer goods, so we stop feeding the plastic soup that’s filling our oceans. Governments need to make significant investments in education, healthcare and green technologies. Any price we pay for these measures, we will more than earn back in a stronger sense of wellbeing all over the world.
Guide
Coronavirus in context
The coronavirus pandemic will have far-reaching and long-lasting consequences. We want to help you understand developments around the world by providing context for the news in a carefully considered, factual and constructive way. This guide gives you the most important insights to help you understand the coronavirus pandemic.