Pandemics, Planet, People, and Purpose
The world stands at a cross roads. The COVID-19 pandemic remains very much a reality and very much a pandemic, with long COVID as well as rapid mutations of the virus raising the prospect of a mass-disabling event for wide swaths of the population.
In the meantime, global policies continue to put the Earth on track for somewhere between 2°C to 3°C of global warming in the coming decades. Warming of this magnitude would lead to severe physical and social stresses and wide-scale displacement, perhaps in the hundreds of millions of people. Warming of this magnitude also brings heightened risks of triggering a variety of climate change tipping points, including the collapse of the Amazon rainforest ecosystems, the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet, and rapid permafrost thaw, among others, which would lead to a cascade of other unprecedented and massive impacts with grave consequences.
Writing these words in October 2022, there remains a rapidly closing window of time to mitigate the extent of these harms and to prepare and adapt to the inevitable changes ahead that can no longer be avoided. But in order to do this, we will have to change the way we live, how we behave, and what we consider to be the purpose of our lives here on this fragile planet. A framework based on pandemics, planet, people, and purpose can help us make the necessary changes we need to make in order for our civilization to manage this century and to lay the groundwork for a better future.
Pandemics
Governments must immediately integrate pandemic defense as a core component of national sovereignty and international cooperation in order to protect the lives and health of all of us. Zoonotic diseases like COVID-19 appear to be increasing in frequency, and global warming could drive more than 15,000 new cases of mammals transmitting viruses to other mammals over the next 50 years. The next major pandemic is inevitable, and the global public health is at grave risk currently from COVID-19 as well as from future pandemics. It is time for governments, particularly rich governments, to wake up to the fact that the world of 2022 is not like the world of 2019 or March 2020. This will require that governments act in good faith and cooperate with each other on a host of issues—intellectual property, monitoring of animal populations, equitable distribution of treatments and vaccines—such that the human rights to life and to health are protected globally.
Planet
Protection of the planet and the biosphere must become a core pillar of national sovereignty and international cooperation as well. Global cooperation initially on pandemics could be the key towards laying a much greater framework on global cooperation related to biodiversity, environmental destruction, and climate change. As with pandemic defense, protection and defense of the planet has not been a priority for rich governments. Thirty years of international meetings have led to grossly negligent outcomes for current and future generations. The nature of sovereignty must now change and adapt to the reality that our species lives on a planet that is now increasingly hostile to human life.
People
My hope would be that as the nature of sovereignty changes to confront planetary threats to our species, governments would recognize that the defense of human rights—the protection of people—is a third pillar of legitimate sovereignty. We live in a world of growing violence and anarchy, and stressors on society from climate change and other environmental threats will challenge the ability of states to maintain the dignity of each person as well as the rule of law. Working for the protection, enjoyment, and fulfillment of human rights must become the singular focus of government.
Purpose
I believe that those of us alive today each carry within us a purpose related to the future of our species—a purpose, which if unlocked, could help guide our species to a better direction and to help future generations withstand so many of the challenges they are set to face. I believe that those of us alive today are the best hope for the future. And I believe that if enough of us choose to activate this inner purpose, that we can change the course of our collective destiny and walk a different path. This unlocking of personal and collective purpose is the essence of self-determination. By exercising self-determination in our personal lives and in each collective to which we belong, I believe we can build a better world.