How Lock-Down May Lead to One of Humanity’s Greatest Turning Points

Have we just inadvertently learned how to save the planet?

I’ve always been a glass-half-full kind of guy.

I like to find the positive in any situation and develop it to create the best possible outcome. There’s something enormously satisfying about taking a situation that knocks you off your feet and turning it into something you’d never have thought of had it not happened in the the first place.

Sometimes you get lucky and actually end up with an outcome that was better than the problem you started with, leading you down a path that was hitherto hidden or considered impossible. Those paths are rare and wonderful, taking you to places or ideas you could barely have imagined, but now seem obvious with the context of where you now stand.

And I believe we, as a species, may just have been given an unprecedented chance to stake stock, learn and come out better, wiser and happier. Of course, the pessimists would say that this is just my ‘glass half full’ way of thinking clouding my judgement and leading to unnecessarily positive conclusions. Perhaps they’re right. But would it be too much, even just for a moment, to consider that perhaps they’re not?

The fact is that the world has changed in a way that none of us could ever have imagined in a time frame that seems impossible to comprehend in retrospect.

What is happening now is historic on a level that will be remembered in the same way that the moon landings, 9/11 or the assassination of JFK are remembered. However, where these were mere moments in human history, what we are experiencing now may well be later seen as the catalyst of change.

Perhaps our grand-children will look at us in awe when we recount the days of lock-down and what it led to, in the same way we listened to our grand-parents who lived and fought through a world war, painting a picture of a society we can barely recognize now.

Of the many changes I would propose that could occur as a result of where we find ourselves now, such as building on our renewed appreciation of the people who are fighting the invisible front lines for our collective survival even as I type, or the economic changes that will have to happen as a result of unprecedented amounts of money creation, one is more important than all of them combined: the very survival of the planet we live on.

Calling planet earth

For someone who is known mostly for writing on subjects to do with finance, Bitcoin or macro economics, this hippy-esque statement may initially seem at odds with my usual output, but it really isn’t. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do for a living, you still need to share the planet with everyone else.

However, we humans have been busy making a mess of it through indifference, ignorance or personal gain and then arguing about who’s fault it is, or whether anything is actually wrong anyway. It was a only short time before Covid-19 stormed through our man made borders as if they weren’t there that we’d managed to even agree some basic plans for reducing the damage over the following decades. Action that was felt to be ‘too little, too late’ by many.

But then, the enforced global lock-down caused by the impact of Covid-19 created an opportunity that we could never have created ourselves. No government on the planet would have agreed anything like this voluntarily and, even if they somehow did, it would have been a fraction of what we see now, full of exceptions and resisted by many.

No, as controversial as it sounds, we needed this like an hysterical person in a dangerous situation needs a slap round the face to pay attention to a calm and rational reality. The somber fact is that many people have lost their lives, many more will do so yet, and we did not choose to be where we now find ourselves. We can, however, choose to turn this global adversity into a positive for the generations that will come after us.

And the clues for how to do this are clearly visible in the information that flows freely to the devices we hold in our hands.

When this crisis began, I poured obsessively over the stories, data and statistics coming in from the various news agencies around the world as the situation unfolded. Initially my interest was entirely human and economic, but, one afternoon, not long after Italy went into total lock-down, (one of the first European countries to do so) one particular story caught my eye.

It was buried deep in the usual stories of death, economic disaster and daily struggles and didn’t seem to have much traction, but it resonated with me immediately.

It seems that the canals in Venice had suddenly become clear, blue and utterly still as the never ending parade of private boats, water taxis and the much-hated tourist cruise ships were all sidelined until further notice. The water, in fact, had become so clear that the sandy bottom could be seen for the first time in living memory, perhaps longer.

In a matter of days, shoals of fish were visible, and cormorants had returned to feast on their now visible prey. It took nature merely a dozen or so days to adjust and thrive without human interaction.

This seemed impossible to me. I’ve been to Venice, a place of some 20 million tourist visits a year, and it is a ghastly mecca of tourist traps, too many people and murky, filthy waters, hiding what really is a beautiful city. The photos made it unrecognizable.

Intrigued, I looked for more information and found it was everywhere. As industrial centres and motorways closed, pollution clouds started to dissipate like someone had opened some giant windows and switched on a huge fan. Countries in order of infection and lock-down reported the same experiences, with huge falls in carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, immediately improving air quality and lowering risks of lung disease, heart attacks and asthma.

In some capital cities, buildings that were previously hidden under a permanent brown haze suddenly emerged, changing the skylines to ones not seen for a generation or more.

New, and different, plants have started to grow by the roadsides as they are no longer overpowered by their more aggressive nitrogen absorbing counterparts. The global collapse in fish prices caused by restaurants closing their doors has seen a huge reduction in fishing levels, allowing stock to recover for the first time in decades.

In fact, the list of changes is huge and the more I look, the more I find. In every case the sheer speed of nature’s recovery without our being in the picture is astonishing.

Of course, this is all anecdotal evidence, and as compelling as it is, and it may be weeks or months before we truly understand the actual numbers and what the effect really has been. But it’s enough to start a thought process along the lines of which we’d never considered before.

There’s also the question of the huge economic cost which in turn creates a whole new set of problems. We could end up living in a clean, but poverty stricken world. How does that help us?

Arguably, the reason for this was simply because we weren’t prepared.

But what if we were?

Save the planet in two weeks

Just go with me on this for a minute. It’s concept, not a detailed plan.

What if we used the same lock-down approach on a planned basis for two weeks every year with the global climate emergency replacing the Coronavirus emergency?

To be clear, that would be an enforced lock-down of two weeks globally by every country on the planet. Yes, it’s a crazy idea, but suddenly it’s not an entirely impossible idea.

We now know it’s actually feasible to do this, something that no-one would have been able to argue with any authority only a few months ago. Sometimes, just knowing something can be done is enough to make the next step viable.

But imagine if this was organised in advance and planned for by countries, governments and individuals alike. You would have time to plan where you spent your two weeks in lock-down, who you spent it with, and how you would manage.

And you’d need to plan carefully. Once in lock-down, you wouldn’t be moving again until the metaphorical siren sounded, except for specific reasons that would be made clear in advance, some of which are discussed below.

Governments would pay your wages or your business expenses in this time, and they would do it gladly, since in my hypothetical proposal it would have long since been proven cheaper to pay these costs than to fund other activities to save the planet. Even if it wasn’t, it could be tied into other initiatives to do with standard of living or training and development.

For example, your company could part pay it if you agreed to take on a two week intensive training course at home on a new skill. Or, you could earn extra if you signed up to be a ‘key worker’ in those two weeks.

‘Key workers’ would be defined along the lines of that global emergency, just as they are now for this one. This time, however, they would be foresters, litter pickers, recycling plants engineers, tree planters and all manner of other skills related to the installation of clean energy or preservation of the planet.

‘Lock-down’ would not be as strict as it is now since social distancing would be not be required. For example, it could be that you can move about as much as you like, as long as you use only human power, such as walking or biking. Other movement, by car for example, would be restricted to the afore mentioned designated key workers and those deemed essential to continuing to support the country’s infrastructure and health.

Local community gatherings could actually be encouraged under certain circumstances, building relationships and community spirit that technology often removes. However, restaurants, theaters, travel, non-essential shops etc or any other commercial activity would cease completely, by order and with strict penalties imposed, during this period. This is not a holiday. It is a two week ‘sacrifice’ to not only let the planet breathe, but also to run projects to help it thrive for the future.

You’d simply plan in advance and get everything you needed ready for the 14 days that lay ahead.

But would it be even be such a terrible sacrifice to pay? Being forced to stay at home in the worst case, and go out and do a bit for the planet in the best?

It doesn’t seem that way, but such a feat would never be easily implemented for a hundred thousand reasons I haven’t even attempted to address, and nor shall in a short, conceptual article such as this. Even the most cursory glance at the idea throws up all sorts of obstacles that immediately appear difficult to solve.

Difficult, yes, but thanks to Covid-19, no longer impossible.

So, will we take some of the unique learning we have gleaned from the global emergency we now find ourselves in and apply it proactively to the next one whether in this form or another?

Or will this go down in history as one of the greatest missed opportunities in human evolution as we all return to business as usual and hope it all turns out OK.

Well, like I said. I’m an optimist, so I’ll be pushing for the first option.

What about you?

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