From Earth Day to Earth Age: How Pandemic Can Become a New Start

STOCKHOLM - April 27, 2020 - PRLog -- On April 22, 2020, the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in a way that was inconceivable a few months before.

On the one hand, the pandemic has reduced pollution, plunged air traffic, and made wildlife re-emerge, which all looks like Earth getting in charge of the environmental protection campaign. On the other hand, Covid-19 disclosed the utter unsustainability of the global society, both ecologically and economically.

With many years of sustainability studies behind its shoulders, SustainOnline believes it might be the best time to make the masses develop a new mindset and choose an alternative path that activists have been preaching for during these long 50 years.

One Day We Can Get Back to Normal. But Should We?

Leaders around the world have pointed our that pandemic uncovered the tremendous scope of challenges facing humanity. Now, when we can see clearly how great the human impact on the environment is and awe at the environment's ability to renew, the need to define a new normal rather than get back to the old one has become a dominant discourse.

The quest for a new path of social development is also linked to economic sustainability, as the virus has demonstrated it can destroy economies of large countries in just a couple of weeks.

In this respect, important is the position of the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, who stated post-pandemic recovery should focus on the following six goals:

• the creation of clean, green jobs;
• universal support for sustainable growth from taxpayers;
• an economic shirt from grey concrete to green nature;
• end to fossil fuel subsidies for the sake of investment  in the future;
• making the financial system embrace climate risk;
• International cooperation.

In the age that may mark a dramatic shift to mass environmental awareness, it is vital for SMEs and large companies to lean in and embrace sustainability education (https://www.sustainonline.com/learning) and reporting. Besides the generally recognized benefits of sustainability for SMEs, there is a large public demand for it.

The Public Support of Sustainability Initiatives

As reported by the Guardian, the latest opinion poll demonstrates strong public support for making green development a priority during the post-virus recovery. The majority of Britons (66%) see the climate as a crisis, which is as serious and long-term as Covid-19 and 58% think it should be prioritized in the economic recovery. Support in China, Germany, France, Italy, India, and Japan is even higher.

While the US and Australia traditionally remain more skeptical, the majority of the population of the countries encourage making green priorities a focus of state policy.

Sustain Online (https://sustainonline.com/) provides a sustainability platform that will allow you to get the necessary knowledge online and start taking actions that are widely sought today.