February 3, 2021
What is this “Back to The Future”
July 29, 2021The “indicators” below emerged with increased urgency, during the current Covid 19 pandemic, as vital priorities for a “green” recovery which could change the world’s view on “building back greener” behaviour – green is not a colour anymore (within the context of holistic sustainable development)
- Capitalism’s dark side has become glaringly exposed and that can be seen not only in the rapid widening of the poverty gap
- Famine is now officially a global pandemic. One of the reasons may be the breaking of the supply chains of food in poorer countries
- The Humans’ way of interaction with animals (especially wild animals and trade in wildlife)
- Health consciousness re pollution has increased – In normal times, 8 million people died, annually from respiratory diseases, directly linked to air pollution (4.2 m outdoor pollution)
- Systemic inflammation/Emotional fallout – how will these influence people’s behaviour and effect on the environment. This effects on people and the impact on health systems and social structures are still underestimated
- Populism – a “protest culture” is gaining momentum due to people being more aware of political (national/international) matters which influence their lives
- Race, social class and the environment – re-emergence of the “Woke” scenario – Some may say that the US has “re-a-Woke” due to the Democrats being re-elected
- Safety consciousness – apart from the health scare evoked by the pandemic, people are generally more sensitive to general safety issues due to their constrained living conditions in apartments, etc.
- A “Spatial revolution” was triggered and, amongst others, the potential for alternative uses for office blocks and other workspaces e.g. for accommodation and the re-affirmation of the sensibility of co-working spaces are game-breakers in this sector
The so-called evolving estrangement may persist amongst people due to forced separation & avoidance of confined & crowded places and spaces
- A communications revolution (circus) has taken place and in all forms of communication media, the cacophony of fake news, misinformation and conspiracies have been at the order of the day. Innovative means of filtering information and ethical distribution of news would be necessary for a better informed global population
- The digital age 4I revolution has revealed its immense, almost unthinkable potential of technological advances in all sectors of society because it poses such a significant and inevitable new way of “doing everything” on this planet and it has brought about an explosion of new technological creativity
- Public transport is a scary tale. How public transport will ever return to its former glory, in particular, air travel is, is to be seen
- A conserving Sparing lifestyle (Reuse of items –saving – resource use sensitivity/awareness)
- Scientific creativity started flourishing in these times with a multitude of Citizen Scientists emerging with fantastic discoveries
- Basic Government service deliveries, throughout the world, has been seriously hampered and this has brought along some innovative public participation intervention in the Public Service space, which can be built on in future
- Industry awareness of and action on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) parameters as a collective to be sustainable in the future, has gained rapid momentum