Corona Sustainability Compass - A Science Blog by Umweltbundesamt, Future Earth, International Science Council and Foundation 2°

Science in the spotlight of the corona crisis

Rarely has there been a time when scientists have been in the focus of politics and the public over a longer period of time than since the beginning of the Corona crisis – at least from a German perspective: no political measure that was not justified by (the latest) scientific findings, no talk show with at least one scientist, daily press conferences of the Robert Koch Institute (The German government’s central scientific institution in the field of biomedicine) with live radio and television. Broadcasts, detailed tables and figures with case numbers, infection risks and R-factors at the top of the list in print and online media shaped the …

Deserted streets, markets and offices. Global supply chains are disrupted and supply shortages appear. Many face growing food insecurity. This is not the storyline of a dystopian film, but reality for many people around the world. Considering that, according to the WHO, around 7.6 billion people have no or only limited access to preventive health care, the current situation in many countries is all the more precarious.

It took a corona virus on a global scale to remind us that the world community is closely intertwined and that we are often the cause of our crises. The effects of crises are often not directly noticeable to us - for instance the scarcity of resources, the disappearance of …

In the last few months, the Covid-19 pandemic has shown how vulnerable our globalised and interconnected societies are, how inseparable national and international policies are, and that such a crisis can affect almost all policy areas and departments. Social, economic and labour market policies have been just as important as education and financial policies. But the crisis has not only exposed weaknesses. It also provides us with opportunities: for global knowledge cooperation, to come up with new approaches to sustainable development, promoting global public welfare and collective learning processes.

The initial reactions to the crisis had a strong national orientation and caused many …

The drastic travel and contact restrictions during the COVID 19 pandemic abruptly stopped movements and encounters of people on all spatial scales. In many areas, the establishment or expansion of virtual communication followed with immense speed. This resulted in a fascinating ambivalence of distance and closeness. In a world primarily characterized by physical presence, whereabouts play a decisive role; in digital collaboration, this spatial dimension partially dissolves. On the one hand, large distances can be easily overcome via online conference; on the other hand, virtual tools are not a complete substitute for personal contact, for example during a coffee break or when getting to know …

‘More local, public and agile, the cornerstones of a resilient post-Corona city’

The shutdown of public and economic life; the rediscovery of what is really ‘systemically relevant’; new forms of community spirit and of generations; an undreamt-of creative power of the state at all levels: All these are phenomena of the Corona crisis, which will shape our thinking about society, economy and politics in its aftermath. It is also necessary to rethink the future of cities and their relationship to the surrounding area. Locally and on site, the consequences of the crisis become workable and specific.

The task now is to outline the contours of a crisis-resistant political, economic and social …