INDUSTRY & RESEARCH
campusreview.com.au
John Hewson. Photo: Supplied
Surviving the other
risks to humanity
COVID-19 has opened our eyes to ‘catastrophic’
global threats, says CHF report.
By Wade Zaglas
P
erhaps one of the only ‘benefits’ of a pandemic like COVID-19
is that it can trigger countries to reassess other dangers to
humanity and how they can be mitigated – possibly even
eliminated – in the future.
A new report, ‘Surviving and Thriving in the 21st Century’, has
done just that, identifying the primary risks to humanity “so our
species can thrive well and into the future in the face of multiple
catastrophic risks”.
John Hewson, ANU professor and chair of the Commission for
the Human Future, says the COVID-19 pandemic has put these
global risks and “humanity’s need to act into sharp focus”.
“The global pandemic we now face shows how short term
and blinkered are our horizons, how vulnerable and unprepared
we are for threats that can shake or collapse our civilisation, even
extinguish us as a species,” he says.
“At present, no government in the world has a plan for meeting
all these risks, for dealing with them as a total system and for
finding the best and safest way out of them.
“This lack of preparedness means humanity will continue to be
ambushed by unforeseen crises.
“This report is a call to all nations and all people.”
The report was developed after a roundtable discussion held
at ANU in March, which brought together preeminent experts
spanning fields as diverse and critical as heath, climate change,
economics and public policy.
Dr Arnagretta Hunter, inaugural ANU Fellow for the Human
Future and CHF board member, says while the threats are “grim”,
the commission holds hope.
“We can turn things around if we can get the right people out in
front, giving the right messages. If we clearly understand the nature
and causes of the risks, devise integrated solutions, and take early
action to defuse them,” she says.
“The longer the delay, the greater the penalty, both economic
and in human lives.
“We need to convince our fellow citizens of Earth of the
necessity to commit ourselves and every belief system we hold,
to survive and thrive. We must recruit the best and brightest young
humans, not to make arms, but to build the process for surviving
and thriving for the whole of humanity.”
In addition to handling crippling pandemics, the report puts
forward a roadmap for how humanity can survive and thrive,
including ending climate change – our most existential threat,
according to scientific consensus.
“An emergency climate action plan must be adopted globally.
The coronavirus experience provides, at a smaller scale, a template
for the type of action required, and offers current leadership an
opportune moment to abandon the present delay in responding to
climate change,” Hunter says.
“It is strongly urged that countries adopt, at a minimum a 50 per
cent CO 2 reduction target by 2030. This is achievable, both
economically and technically.”
Other steps the report deals with explicitly include “[improving]
food security, banning nuclear weapons, repairing the global
environment and cleaning up the planet”.
On the issue of food security, the report states: “Global food
security is on a knife-edge due to massive soil loss, growing water
scarcity, ecosystem decline and climate change.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of the global
industrial food chains which feed the megacities, raising the
spectre of scarcity amid plenty.
“Everybody needs to eat, every day. History shows that, if they
don’t, wars break out. The Spanish have a saying: ‘There are only
seven meals between civilisation and anarchy’.”
Hewson, a former leader of the Liberal Party, says thriving and
surviving in the future will require a more “eco-centric vision of our
future”, rather than an “econo-centric” or anthropocentric one – a
sharp departure from the past.
“For this, it is essential that humanity develops a shared
understanding of the nature and causes of the risks, that we devise
integrated solutions, and that we take early action to defuse them.
The longer the delay, the greater the penalty, both economic and
in human lives.”
The genesis of the CHF occurred in 2017, after a workshop
was developed by Emeritus Professor Bob Douglas on existential
risks. The CHF’s mission is to develop solutions to the “greatest
challenges in human history”.
These include, according to the commission, ecological
collapse, resource depletion, global warming, global poisoning,
food insecurity, population and urban expansion, pandemic
disease, war and conflict.
The commission’s board comprises a number of highly influential
current and emeritus ANU academics, including Bob Douglas,
John Hewson, Judith Healy, Sharon Friel and Russell Gruen. ■
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