Still surprises me that we can get nearly 2 years into a pandemic, and very little discussion is had about…

Still surprises me that we can get nearly 2 years into a pandemic, and very little discussion is had about economic resilience. If a society basically has to be shut down to avoid mass death, the problem isn’t the virus. /1

Societies are too mobile, in fact hyper-mobile. Both internally and externally. Ludicrous amounts of transport and travel. Climate change requires that to be changed as well. And we miss what that hyper-mobility means, at root. /2

It means dislocation, of lives. The gloss we get on it is about fabulous overseas and local tourism. But it means communities with very little resilience, fed by fragile supply chains. Communities whose physical footprint serves more as a car park for mobile workers. /3

We know fifo communities, but all of ours are now didos - drive-in, and drive-out. If we feel we need to balance ‘economic’ considerations with people’s health, then economics is doing the wrong job. It’s rationalising displacement and dislocation. /4

Easily seen in so many ways. Our agricultural lands are so degraded as to be at the point of almost total dysfunction. Communities are not even remotely self-reliant with basics like food, and increasingly also not water. /5

Employment is siphoned off to the major metropolitan areas, where housing in turn is unaffordable for most, and people can’t shelter from a virus at home for a few weeks without starving and defaulting on mortgages. /6

Not a call for some new self-sufficiency lifestyle. But definitely for greater community-sufficiency, where a community once ‘locked down’ can still function, even for an extended time. /end