brave new world

Does the pandemic help or hinder our sustainable aspirations?

"The return of nature" amid this global pandemic has been talked about so much it has already become cliche. Enough to the point where my eyes are now exhausted from rolling every time I see someone say something childish and rhetorical like, "what if humans are the real virus". Yeah we get it, we're the problem- we've been hearing that for ages now. Can we move on from being so petty and dramatic? Because it obscures the message, adds a politicization that only make things more difficult, and is easily subject to parody (see below). All of which will cause people to dismiss the more tangible things we've learned and can salvage from this situation and the implications that these developments have towards a greener future. 

The pandemic has exposed that many of the environmentally detrimental practices our economy relies on are also some of our greatest weaknesses in the face of a health emergency. For one its proven that we rely too much on foreign supply chains and need to shift towards a model more focused on localized domestic production. We've learned that its possible to ween ourselves off of oil, and that with the plummeting prices of oil per barrel it may even be necessary to do it sooner than later. Many businesses, including architectural firms are now learning how possible it is to take on a remote work from home framework for its employees. We are learning how commuting to work is not necessary for many of us. Brick and mortar retail is going to take a huge hit, and online sales are going to become the saving grace of many of these companies. My one hope is that bars rebound quickly. 

The post pandemic world is going to be very interesting. I think it is going to jump-start a lot of things that people have been predicting to come much sooner than they would have naturally. Social Distancing has become a testing ground for automation, companies were already shifting away from relying on a human work force before all this. Now its likely that many are going to believe it's a necessity. We are going to transition into a much more virtual world at least. Who know's how soon large groups of people are going to be able to assemble again, and even after this is officially over how long will it be before everyone is even comfortable assembling again. From an urban planning perspective it's going to be interesting to see how we view density from here on out. Will people still want to keep moving into the heart of cities now that this has happened?

Change is much more likely to happen after a global event like this, and I think the world is going to have the opportunity to set some things right now that a lot of it has been undone. I really hope we take it.