Learning from the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis to Overcome the Global Environmental Crisis

Christoph von Hagke (), Chloe Hill, Angela Hof, Thomas Rinder, Andreas Lang and Jan Christian Habel
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Christoph von Hagke: Geology, Department of Environment and Biodiversity, Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg, Hellbrunner Str. 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Chloe Hill: European Geosciences Union, 81677 Munich, Germany
Angela Hof: Physical Geography, Department of Environment and Biodiversity, University of Salzburg, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Thomas Rinder: Geology, Department of Environment and Biodiversity, Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg, Hellbrunner Str. 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Andreas Lang: Physical Geography, Department of Environment and Biodiversity, University of Salzburg, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Jan Christian Habel: Evolutionary Zoology, Department of Environment and Biodiversity, University of Salzburg, 5020 Salzburg, Austria

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-8

Abstract: The COVID-19 crisis and the environmental crisis share a range of similarities. Both crises take place on a global scale and affect all aspects of our lives. However, we humans respond differently to these challenges. Here, we compare and comment on characteristics of the COVID-19 crisis and the environmental crisis, explore how far these two crises are comparable, and what we can learn from actions that have been taken against the COVID-19 crisis. We discuss how human societies are affected by the respective crises, and analyze policy makers’ responses and offer pathways to better inform policy. We highlight the role of science, which significantly contributed to decision making throughout the COVID-19 crisis, but seems frequently underrepresented in the environmental crisis. We conclude that there are significant differences between the two crises in terms of perceptibility and thus communicability. While problems and solutions in the COVID-19 crisis are largely linearly correlated, the challenges of the environmental crisis are far more complex and decoupled, and thus appear much more complex and are often only perceived with difficulty by humans. Thus, tackling the environmental crisis is much more challenging than solving the COVID-19 crisis. To overcome the environmental crisis, purely technical approaches for combating symptoms are not sufficient. However, political interests are usually short-term, and do not correspond with the temporal and spatial scales of global change. There is an urgent need to improve institutionalized scientific advisory mechanisms and to empower global policy makers who are independent of local interest groups. Furthermore, we need the sound communication of complex interactions to the general public and the translation of scientific findings into action. One possibility to achieve this is to bring together natural scientists with expertise in biology, climate and geosciences and social scientists, psychologists, and, possibly, artists.

Keywords: pandemics; environmental crisis; linearity; complexity; symptoms; causes; policy; communication; time-scales (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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