Sustainability and Resilience at its Heart
War, as we know, changes everything, and the COVID pandemic is war.
Like war, this has burrowed into the depths of our society and economy, shaking its foundations. What will emerge in the aftermath will not be life as we knew it. It will be different. Whether it’s different in a good way, or a bad one, is up to us and how we choose to seize this opportunity.
Before my role as the Dean of Chatham University’s Falk School of Sustainability & Environment, I spent 25 years working in disaster response around the world, from war zones to floods, earthquakes, famine and epidemics. After a few years of responding to these crises, you realize that in each instance, you are seeing the same repeated patterns of human behavior, economics and social change. Two of them seem particularly relevant to our current situation.
First, crises bring out the best and the worst in people. I remember talking with a young mom in Rwanda, after the genocide. She had sheltered, hidden with her baby, whilst watching the mob hack her husband and children to death with machetes. She was, literally, rebuilding her house with the baby strapped to her back and, with other survivors, was organizing a school for the remaining children. Her resilience and determination to build a better future for all the children in the face of atrocity left me humbled and in tears.
Second, crises exacerbate inequalities. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. During the famine in Sudan in the 1980s, I had to get food shipped across the country from the port to the famine area, over a thousand miles away, in a country with virtually no tarred roads. There was only one local trucking company capable of doing it. They charged us four times the pre-crisis rate and came out of the famine multi-millionaires. At the same time, those we were shipping the grain to had already sold off everything they owned to survive. Their goats had sold at a tenth of their normal market value to buy food which was priced at five times its normal rate.
We are seeing these same trends play out now in America.
We have seen countless examples of people doing good throughout this crisis. In my own socially distant circle, my neighbor (in her 70s and housebound) is sewing face masks and refusing to take money for them. On our campus farm, our students have organized a once-a-week farm stand to give away the vegetables they are growing. These, and thousands of other small acts of compassion and kindness all around us, are what give you faith in the future.
On the flip side, the virus has exposed and exacerbated inequalities by hitting poorer households and communities, with little access to healthcare, much harder than others. There are now 22 million Americans unemployed and, around the world, 81% of the world’s workforce is either laid off or working part-time. International aid agencies estimate that this crisis will push a half billion people further into poverty around the world.
So, what can these trends show us about building back after the crisis?
First, if you let the market and the old political process plod on, inequities in society will become greater, trust in public institutions and governments will go down, and people will seek alternative solutions. The ruling elites of Sudan, Ethiopia and Rwanda were overthrown following the crises there. Britain’s most revered leader of the 20th century suffered a massive humiliating defeat in elections after World War II, and the new government ushered in national health and education systems. Simply put, business as usual won’t cut it. We must build our recovery by harnessing the spirit of goodwill, community focus and acts of kindness all around us.
Second, if we are smart, we will realize there will be other crises in the future, and we need to foster resilience in our health systems, food systems, power systems, and employment systems in order to withstand future shocks. This is where sustainability provides a way forward.
Sustainable thinking is about more than the environment, as it helps societies and economies achieve resilience through: food systems that are kind to the soil (and with a robust local component), strong supply chains, low carbon emission, dispersed energy systems and, by creating cities that enhance equity, health and happiness for all citizens.
Finally, this crisis is an opportunity to rethink some of our most deeply held, but maybe flawed, beliefs. Money, I’m afraid, can’t buy you everything. The free market drives prosperity and innovation, but it is less effective at providing equitable services and the basics of life for those who do not have the wherewithal to buy them. This crisis will, I hope, allow us to reassess just what we want and need from our city, state and national governments, while encouraging them to act as agents and partners with other organizations focused on social responsibility, and strengthening the safety net for the most vulnerable.
I have three words that keep popping into my head every time I take a break from talking to my students or feeding my chickens: we the people. We need to rebuild our world; it's not someone else’s problem. We need to rebuild it with sustainability and resilience at its heart. We need to remake our world so we have a stake in the future and a fair shot at health, happiness and a brighter tomorrow.
Dr. Peter Walker
Dean, Falk School of Sustainability and Environment
Chatham University
In the face of crisis, sustainability professionals create solutions that drive a resilient future. Chatham's Master of Sustainability (MSUS) program prepares enterprising students with the tools necessary to be the agents of change that corporations, governments, and other organizations need to lead their sustainability initiatives and respond to emerging issues that impact the citizens of the world. The program and its focus on real-world impact is inspired by environmental icon and Chatham alumna Rachel Carson '29, whose own work over 50 years ago continues to impact the world.