Last updated on May 11th, 2021 at 08:27 am
We are living in an era in which intersecting problems are being lifted to a global scale, with unprecedented levels of inequality, environmental destruction and climate destabilization, as well as new spikes in populism, conflict, economic insecurity and increasing threats to public health. Both of these are crises that slowly tip the balance, question our business-as-usual economic paradigm of the past decades and allow us to reconsider our next moves.
There are similarities, to some degree, that can be made between the present COVID-19 pandemic and some of the other contemporary crises that our world faces. Both need a global-to-local response and long-term thinking; all need to be driven by science and protect the most vulnerable among us; and all need the political will to make significant changes when faced with existential risk.
In this sense, the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 will lead to a deeper understanding of the links that connect us all on a global scale and can help us come to grips with the century’s greatest public health threat, the climate crisis.
We draw from the COVID-19 pandemic is that well-resourced, inclusive health systems with a healthy and mobilized health workforce are important to protect us from threats to health protection, including climate change. Unless economies and communities are to be sustainable and stable in an era of transition, the austerity policies that have weakened many national health systems over the past decade will have to be reversed.
Crises like these provide an opportunity for a restored sense of common humanity in which people understand what matters most: the health and safety of their loved ones, and the extension of their culture, nation and fellow global citizens’ health and safety. Both the global crisis and the unfolding pandemic are threatening this one thing about which we all matter.
Through this, Philippine scientists and conservationists called on the Philippine government to prioritize biodiversity in order to avoid potential pandemics similar to the current coronavirus and other menaces to human survival.
300 environmentalists urged the country’s representatives to tackle biodiversity depletion, climate change and ecological amnesia in an open letter ahead of Earth Day.
This must support actively the conservation of the existing natural habitats and the restoration of the habitats that have been lost, unceasingly enforce environmental laws and prosecute violators, motivate and protect the environment, encourage effective management and adequate funding of our protected, maintained and key biodiversity areas and harmonize economic growth with sustainability.
The signatories of the open letter emphasized that companies whether big or small should invest in the use of renewable energy, recycled packaging, responsible waste management, sustainable agriculture and ethical commerce.
The scientists and conservationists have called on the media and education sector to create a “radical new strategy” for creating a new generation of research- and conscious-led environmental stewards.
Ordinary citizens should also do our part by reflecting on our everyday habits and food, water, energy and resources use, recognizing that. individual choice can have compound effects on nature and on our society.
May people be aware with the reality of what we re facing. To take care of our environment is also by taking care of ourseleves.
