Two years after the beginning of the pandemic, the balance sheets on the legacy of Covid-19 were multiplying.
Emulating the adage that “with every recession the planet breathes”, amidst the confinement, signs of recovering ecosystems, water quality and cleaner air and a redefinition of human priorities for affections, sociability and away from status and consumption.
These signs of ecological well-being, the result of governmental quarantines, replaced the State and centralized public policies as agents of change beyond the voluntary restrictions of individuals.
As in previous crises, and in line with the efforts of global concertation that boosted the Millennium Goals and SDGs, the Kyoto protocol, the COP climate conferences and the new Paris Agreement, the commitment to order the world in sustainable way from the anticipated and controlled planning of the desirable results (sustainability by project).
However, proposals for green shocks, eco-responsible policies labeled “build back better” and climate-just transitions fell apart, giving way to the least desired alternative: the radical disorganization of our lives, the result of the economic and socio-psychological crisis that accompanied the confinements. (sustainability by disaster).
And, if in countries with strong governments that have more resources, the central leadership of the State remained in the discourse, what about Latin American societies?
Here, the upheavals of daily life derived from Covid brought sudden and unexpected changes in the form of consumption and other social practices.
The eventual pro-sustainability legacy is easier to recognize as a result of the disaster borne by the people than of government design or planning.
The six sources of change
According to the study Sustainable Consequences of Covid-19, carried out by the consultancy Market Analysisin Brazil –a result that can probably be extrapolated to other Latin American societies– it is possible to distinguish a series of sources of changes that point to a smaller climatic-environmental footprint.
These changes imply traumatic transformations in lifestyles, which reveals the predominance of a sustainable effect by disaster.
The first transformation was a phenomenal reduction in consumer spending, as a result of sharply deteriorating financial conditions and persistent unemployment, but also as a result of an awakening to frugality, spending planning and the idea of saving.
According to the study, 53% of Brazilians saw their spending worsen in 2021 compared to the first year of the pandemic, which had already been a terrible year. Something similar happened with the ability to generate income, which worsened to 49% in 2021.
In contrast, the ability to avoid superfluous or unplanned purchases has improved.
Second, there has been a redefinition of entertainment and leisure increasingly disconnected from marketable experiences or conventional travel.
Almost half of Brazilians cut their travel and vacation plans, especially international flights, and there was even little enthusiasm for terrestrial escapes to areas close to their place of residence.
In parallel, the consumption of alcohol and beverages so associated with leisure was reduced.
Furthermore, according to the interviewees, there is a general feeling of improvement in social and affective relationships, which gain centrality and trigger a sense of individual well-being, despite an increase in loneliness among those who gave their opinion.
However, sociability and affective contention extrapolated the face-to-face space to the online sphere.
There is also a strong perception of individual utility for the collective good through participation in voluntary or solidary actions.
Almost a third of Brazilians were involved in philanthropic actions, volunteering and unpaid cooperation with colleagues or strangers, most strongly among women, the young and the upper middle class.
There was thus a revaluation of solidarity practices that expand the notion of citizenship beyond electoral formalisms.
There has also been a boom in health improvement concerns and practices, tending to prioritize immunity and healthier habits in general.
According to the survey, the use of self-care and personal control accessories and apps has skyrocketed, such as fitbands, meditation and gym apps, heart rate monitoring, blood pressure, etc.
The intention to engage in sports or physical activities exclusively on an individual basis also skyrocketed, while food choices improved.
Twice as many people plan to eat less animal protein, such as meat and dairy, and double the number of people seeking more organic and natural foods.
Finally, there was an immersion in highly digitized environments and formats to perform the different functions and roles of everyday life.
The online/offline hybridization of everyday life, its obligations and choices, is a fact. For example, 36% will work from home more and only 23% will reduce it. And, in terms of studies and professional training, a majority adhere to distance learning formats.
Change as a result of unwanted restrictions
The signs of progress towards sustainability that can be identified in Brazil two years after the start of the pandemic are, therefore, much more the result of involuntary and undesirable restrictions than the fruit of a state-led project in favor of a transition to responsibility. climatic-environmental.
The resulting arrangement and its environmental and sustainability dividends are far from obeying a plan resulting from the forced adaptation to the disaster or maladjustment that befell our personal lives.
Progress towards a smaller environmental footprint does not derive from planned actions, but from the economic recession, the sudden impoverishment of large sections of the population, restrictions on the ways of working, educating, socializing and having fun, and the confinement forced from families unable to accommodate the multiplicity of functions of all their members.
To what extent will all this feed substantially and permanently less harmful to the environment?
Will this new reality change at the first sign of economic improvement?
Only time will tell.
