We are sitting in the theater. Nobody knows how much longer. We are watching the world premiere of a Chinese director's play entitled "Corona". A crazy play unfolds before our eyes. Bats and pangolins whizz across the stage. Insecure actors wearing face masks improvise side by side at a distance of 2 meters. A mixture of impatience (how much longer will it take?) and curiosity (could there still be something like a partial happy ending?) spreads. Let's use the time to see what we can learn from this crisis.
What have we learned from crises in the past?
Of course, it would be negligent to play down the dangers and consequences of the coronavirus crisis. Which led Angela Merkel to describe it as the 'biggest crisis since the Second World War'. If you also take political and ecological crises into account, such as the Cold War or the climate crisis, the statement seems somehow skewed. Perhaps a look at the lessons and aha-effects of tangible past crises would do us good right now.
What lasts a long time will finally be good
For almost 40 years after the Second World War, the 'invisible' threat of an impending nuclear war from the Cold War hovered over us and our parents and grandparents. In 1962, the situation came to such a head that it probably wouldn't have taken much more than the push of a button and the history books would look different today (if there were still any). The conflict continues to smoulder. In 1984, the Doomsday Clock[1] is set to 3 minutes to midnight. And then, surprisingly, perestroika and glasnost (reorganization and transparency) appear on the scene. We hear the "wind of change" from somewhere and feel the magic of this historic moment[2]. On the day the Berlin Wall came down, it wasn't just our class teacher who had tears in his eyes when he told us about what had happened. The Eastern Bloc is history. In a reunited Germany, the words cohesion and solidarity take on a whole new meaning.
The deeper the crisis, the more likely the change
Or let's jump back to the oil crisis of the 1970s. The book "The Limits to Growth", published in 1972, proved to be almost prophetic of what became apparent for the first time in the years that followed. That infinite growth does not work, and certainly not when 'finite' raw materials such as oil, coal and gas are involved. As ordered, the first oil price shock followed promptly in 1973. Politically upset by a conflict in the Middle East, the oil countries cut back on production and sent the oil price through the roof. At the time, politicians were also pondering what restrictions would be reasonable for the population in order to defuse the crisis. What was decided at short notice back then is reminiscent of today's climate debate: an Austria-wide speed limit of 100 km/h, mandatory car-free days and lowering the room temperature in offices to 20°C. We also owe the introduction of energy vacations[3] to the oil crisis (even if the energy-saving effect remained an unfulfilled hope).
What did we learn from this? How much we are dependent on the oil states. But we didn't really care. Life on the drip was (and is for many) comfortable. Whether we continued to drive cars or heat our homes with oil was only questioned at the time in the gently growing bubble of the environmental protection movement. The oil price shock was not deep enough to herald a social change of course with regard to fossil fuels.
Wouldn't we have a good chance of a social rethink now?
The fact that the corona crisis is just the tip of the crisis iceberg, under which even more powerful crises are hidden (e.g. the climate crisis), shows us that we may not have learned enough from the crises of the past.
The current crisis is opening our eyes particularly vehemently to questionable existing dependencies. The fact that we import essential medicines, protective clothing and a large proportion of our food and energy suddenly makes us feel uneasy. Just like the social inequalities: Who is currently unemployed? Who can take part in digital lessons? Which countries are being hit particularly hard by the crisis?
We could draw a wealth of forward-looking conclusions from this crisis. We could see it as an "initiation" into a new future that is as biodiverse as it is people-friendly. In future, we could build our economy on the principles of the common good and the circular economy, and no longer on profit maximization. We could free ourselves from legacy issues and make a fresh start. Nature shows us how.
Well, the viral posts about the dolphins in Venice and the drunk elephants turned out to be fake news. But we want nature to recover. Prof. Susan Clayton[4] explains this effect as follows: "No matter what we have done, people hope that nature is strong enough to rise above it."
The fact is: where smokestacks and cars stand still, where airplanes stay on the ground, the air clears up within a few days, be it in China or Italy. The water in Venice's canals is currently crystal clear. Here in Austria, the sky is historically blue, without contrails. And the starry sky is more dazzling than ever.
The old lime tree next to my office window could certainly tell me many more stories about past crises. It would probably add at the end: "Every crisis is over at some point."
About the author
Dr. Sybille Chiari is part of the editorial team at "Nachhaltigkeit. Neu denken" (Rethinking Sustainability) and has been researching and writing about sustainability and climate communication for many years. She is part of the Scientists for Future movement and chairwoman of the Bele Co-Housing association (a community housing project with organic, regenerative agriculture www.belehof.at).
