\u201cThe world will never be the same again,\u201d has been the oft-repeated refrain since the coronavirus brought the global economy to a juddering halt.<\/p>\n
For many it has shown how fragile our civilisation is.<\/p>\n
The crisis has come as a new movement called \u201ccollapsology\u201d \u2014 which warns of the possible collapse of our societies as we know them \u2014 is gaining ground.<\/p>\n
With climate change exposing how unsustainable the economic and social model based on fossil fuels is, they fear orthodox thinking may be speeding us to our doom.<\/p>\n
The theory first emerged from France\u2019s Momentum Institute, and was popularised by a 2015 book, \u201cHow Everything Can Collapse\u201d.<\/p>\n
Some of its supporters, like former French environment minister Yves Cochet, believe the coronavirus crisis is another sign of impending catastrophe.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Virus domino effect \u2013<\/p>\n
While the mathematician, who founded France\u2019s Green party \u201cstill hesitates\u201d about saying whether the virus will be the catalyst for a domino effect, he quoted the quip that \u201cit\u2019s too early to say if it\u2019s too late\u201d.<\/p>\n
Yet Cochet \u2014 whose book \u201cBefore the Collapse\u201d predicts a meltdown in the next decade \u2014 is convinced that the virus will lead to \u201ca global economic crisis of greater severity than has been imagined\u201d.<\/p>\n
The 74-year-old, who retired to France\u2019s rural Brittany region so he could live more sustainably, is also worried about an impending \u201cglobal disaster with lots of victims, both economic and otherwise\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is happening now is a symptom of a whole series of weaknesses,\u201d warned Professor Yves Citton of Paris VIII University.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn\u2019t the end of the world but a warning about something that has already been set in motion,\u201d he told AFP, \u201ca whole series of collapses that have begun\u201d.<\/p>\n
The slide may be slow, said Jean-Marc Jancovici, who heads the Shift Project think-tank which aims to \u201cfree economics from carbon\u201d. But \u201ca little step has been taken (with the virus) that there is no going back on\u201d, he argued.<\/p>\n
Pablo Servigne, the ecologist and agricultural engineer who co-wrote \u201cHow Everything Can Collapse\u201d, has a more chilling take.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big lesson of history\u2026 and of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse is that pestilence, war and famine tend to follow in each others\u2019 wake. We have a pandemic which could lead to another shock \u2014 wars, conflicts and famines,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd famines will make us more vulnerable to other pandemics\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 A chance to change \u2013<\/p>\n
Grim as that prospect may be, influential philosopher and sociologist Bruno Latour said the crisis has give us a chance to imagine alternatives to neo-liberal capitalism.<\/p>\n
He warned on his blog that the world had \u201cto make sure that, after the virus crisis, things don\u2019t start again as they were before.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us take advantage of the forced suspension of most activities to take stock of those we would like to see discontinued and those that we would like to see developed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The virus had also shown, he wrote in a piece for the AOC online daily, \u201cthat it is possible in a few weeks to suspend a global economic system that until now everyone said was impossible to slow or adjust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Servigne too can see a bright side, comparing the lockdown to someone \u201cpulling the alarm signal on a train\u201d, with states now intervening in social and economic policy in ways that have long been taboo.<\/p>\n
He was also \u201cinspired by the way that nature has reacted as soon as we stopped our craziness\u201d and taken back spaces freed up by our confinement.<\/p>\n
The good news from an environmental point of view, said Jancovici, was that \u201cmoney is no longer a problem\u201d for political leaders. \u201c\u2018Need 500 billion? We will find it!’\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThe world will never be the same again,\u201d has been the oft-repeated refrain since the coronavirus brought the global economy to a juddering halt. For many it has shown how fragile our civilisation is. The crisis has come as a new movement called \u201ccollapsology\u201d \u2014 which warns of the possible collapse of our societies as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":21798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[1279,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-21797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-coronavirus-in-zimbabwe","10":"tag-zimbawen-economy"},"yoast_head":"\n