Coronavirus as a Metaphor

11 Mar Coronavirus as a Metaphor

Imagine a science fiction movie where the corona of a planet becomes infected and everyone’s life is threatened. The only way to solve the problem is global cooperation, which—in this movie at least—happens in time to offset calamity. But first the population had to make real changes, changes that at first seemed difficult, but then revealed hidden gifts.

Well, the corona of a planet is a pretty big thing—consider it to be the biosphere itself. But how big is that?

If you imagine reducing the planet to the size of a large balloon, a thin layer of paint on the surface would represent the entire biosphere. It may be wrapped around the entire planet, but it is fragile indeed.

This thin, coronal layer of plants, trees, and atmosphere, is everything that gives us life. And it’s currently infected by an overreach of “flesh-eating bacteria” — namely humans that are over-consuming their resources.

Climate change is the fever, but the underlying disease is the unbridled consumption of Nature. Whether it’s plastics in the ocean, deforestation, depleted fisheries, water shortages, or soil depletion, we are destroying our planetary corona. And a tiny coronavirus might just be nature’s way of self-regulating. At the very least, it is teaching us how to live more sustainably.

The coronavirus is already a game changer. Yesterday I drove a friend to an appointment in what is usually bumper-to-bumper rush-hour traffic. The highway was a breeze—because so many were working from home. That’s a lot of cars that are not spewing carbon into the air, and a lot of people having more time at home because they’re not commuting. Hmm.

Even in the first two weeks of its onset in China, 200,000 flights were cancelled, resulting in a 25% reduction of China’s total carbon emissions.

Now add the lockdown of Italy, with its empty streets, trains, and shopping malls, and we see that this microscopically small virus that threatens individual life, is having a global impact in the direction of relief to the biosphere.

Not that this is the best way to achieve this, any more than hospital surgery is a good way to lose weight. But it shows us that we can do it when we have to.

We can slow down the mindless consumption, the constant travel, and the busyness that plagues our lives, and actually be happier with the result.

Perhaps learning this lesson is the real medicine we need to combat the virus. If we can understand that climate change is an even bigger, more deadly threat than COVID-19, we just might be able to make the changes necessary.

Bill McKibben, noted climate activist, says he is now more optimistic that people can change. “It’s worth noting how nimbly millions of people seem to have learned new patterns. Companies, for instance, are scrambling to stay productive, even with many people working from home.

“The idea that we need to travel each day to a central location to do our work may often be the result of inertia, more than anything else. Faced with a real need to commute by mouse, instead of by car, perhaps we’ll see that the benefits of workplace flexibility extend to everything from gasoline consumption to the need for sprawling office parks.”

When we encounter a game-changer, it is worth asking, what is the game changing into?

When we figure that out, we can rapidly get on board and play to win.

+49

0