Month: May 2020

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Waking up to the New Realities

In the recent podcast on See Change MAKERS, we explored the idea of collective housing. In these communities, many people collaborate by sharing their skills to better a home life environment. During the COVID-19 crisis, we have learned how important working together as a global community can make on finding answers to big issues such as learning from what other countries do to curb a virus that has no boundaries; wash hands with soap and water; social distance and stay home. However, meeting challenges by isolating and ignoring the situation, means matters will worsen as seen by countries such as the United States. The US administration initially applied denial then took a hands-off approach when helping their state senators and citizens mitigate the crisis. Now, they have the greatest number of cases, globally.   

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization states in their current healthy green recovery manifesto, we need to work together to climb out of this crisis in a conscious and thoughtful way. The guide outlines six key points to enable a healthy and safe green recovery. They are:

  1. Protect and preserve the source of human health: Nature
  2. Invest in essential services, from water and sanitation to clean energy in healthcare facilities.
  3. Ensure a quick healthy energy transition.
  4. Promote healthy, sustainable food systems.
  5. Build healthy, liveable cities.
  6. Stop using taxpayers money to fund pollution.
World Health Organization’s “Prescription for a healthy & green COVID-19 recovery” published May 29th, 2020

The WHO also establishes that when we put our energies towards the betterment of humanities, health and welfare, people will listen to create the needed changes. Currently, global scientists, researchers, various companies and organizations plus health care providers are working together collectively to come up with a vaccine as well as interim preventative measures.

Collaboration in the sciences is nothing new. Peer-reviewed journals are a mainstay for all scientific research. It is necessary and mandatory to have research reviewed by your peers to look at the pitfalls or other peripheral circumstances that may not have been considered during research. This is practiced in universities, hospitals, and many other established public research institutions. Collaboration and cooperation are also important in the field of technology and business. Much of the day to day computer-related tasks are based on these foundations in their very application. Consider Google, one of the most popular search engines with a stunning 87.35% market share. Google hosts a variety of collaborating resources such as Google Drive, Docs & Meet to name a few. Each of these offer platforms in which others can contribute and/or share information. Whether it is health, technology, business, or education, we live in a society that at its foundation requires some form of collaboration.

Commons-Based Peer Production produced by P2Pvalue & designed by Laura Recio

The World Health Organization invites you to contribute your Big Idea to shape the future of training and learning in achieving better health for all.

CONTRIBUTE YOUR IDEAS BY CLICKING HERE

The next phase in human evolution anticipates our ability to work together for the common good for us all. This leads us to the consideration of the next global industrial revolution, which will be discussed during See Change MAKERS’ next BLOG installment.

Please stay tuned in…

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AHEAD of the FLATTENED CURVE

COVID-19 has given the world time to reflect on many issues. From the way we work to the way we consume. Suddenly these modes of transactions and communications have been revisited. Interestingly, we’ve realized, we can live without the variety of distractions that our lives have become entangled with. Meanwhile, environments, and ecosystems have flourished because we are able to live with less. So now, the economy needs to begin again. Where does this lead us?

We have been given an opportunity to start anew; to begin again in a different way. During this pause, the European Union has been utilizing the time to conceptualize their GREEN DEAL. As many of us have been working from home, so to have the policymakers and administrators. On May 4th, PBS’s/CNN’s Christian Amanpour talked with the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen about the EU’s new Green Deal. Leyen established that the Green Deal will ramp up as they open up. This downtime has provided the perfect pause to solidify the vision and perfect a starting point to implement the new circular economy. By applying their vision of a circular economy, they hope to increase the EU’s GDP by .05% which will employ 700,000 people by 2030. One of the significant trajectories for this new economy is to have climate neutrality by 2050. Immediately, one main focal point is waste reduction through repairables, renewables, and reusables. From energy resources to consumer products, there will be a focus on creating lengthier life to various consumables such as electronics, waste reduction, and building on resource sustainability.

The European Commission presented The European Green Deal, which sets out how to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, boosting the economy, improving people’s health and quality of life, caring for nature, and leaving no one behind. 13/12/2019 Strasbourg – EP/Louise-Weiss

The three overarching themes of the E.U’s GREEN DEAL are:

  • No net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050
  • Economic growth is decoupled from resource use
  • No person and no place are left behind.[1]

The consortium is looking at, not only, their own cluster of countries but looking at the global effects that a population’s actions place on all of us. They have quite rightly taken responsibility.

In some parts of Canada, some of these circular economy actions have been taken place for a number of years without actual acknowledgment. In the lower mainland, reusables are becoming the norm not the exception. Policies may actually be lagging behind public behavior. When talking about resource and energy management, the policy is an imperative act. Thomas Gunton, the director of the Resource and Environmental Planning Program at Simon Fraser University and a former B.C. deputy environment minister is quoted in his recent op-ed article for CBC.


“The good news is we have the ability to meet our climate-change commitments by replacing fossil fuels with wind and solar energy, buying electric cars, and upgrading our homes and businesses to reduce energy consumption. And, as the International Energy Agency states, the current economic downturn presents a major opportunity for governments to accelerate the trend toward clean energy.”[2]  

            So where do we go from here? As Canada starts to ramp up, will we be a country “ahead of the curve”, once we have flattened it, or will we be left behind?

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en

[2] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/covid-19-climate-change-crisis-opinion-1.5554971