Page 112 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

2. Risk-awareness. The pandemic played the role of a great
“risk-awakening”, making us much more aware of the risks

we collectively face and reminding us that our world is
tightly interconnected. COVID-19 made it clear that we
ignore science and expertise at our peril, and that the
consequences of our collective actions can be

considerable. Hopefully, some of these lessons that offer
us a better understanding of what an existential risk really
means and entails will now be transferred to climate risks.
As Nicholas Stern, Chair of the Grantham Research

Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, stated:
“What we have seen from all of this, is that we can make
changes (…). We have to recognise there will be other
pandemics and be better prepared. [But] we must also

recognise that climate change is a deeper and bigger
threat that doesn’t go away, and is just as urgent.” [113]
Having worried for months about the pandemic and its

effect on our lungs, we’ll become obsessed about clean air;
during the lockdowns, a significant number of us saw and
smelled for ourselves the benefits of reduced air pollution,
possibly prompting a collective realization that we just have
a few years to address the worst consequences of global

warming and climate change. If this is the case, societal
(collective and individual) changes will follow.

3. Change in behaviour. As a consequence of the point
above, societal attitudes and demands may evolve towards

greater sustainability to a greater degree than commonly
assumed. Our consumption patterns changed dramatically
during the lockdowns by forcing us to focus on the
essential and giving us no choice but to adopt “greener

living”. This may last, prompting us to disregard everything
that we do not really need, and putting into motion a
virtuous circle for the environment. Likewise, we may
decide that working from home (when possible) is good for

both the environment and our individual well-being
(commuting is a “destroyer” of well-being – the longer it is,
the more detrimental it becomes to our physical and mental

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