Connecting COVID with the Future of Work and Climate Action

What if COVID is the dress rehearsal, a road map for how we as humans can handle the environmental crisis? We have now shown that nations can quickly agree on a consistent course of action, humans can make sacrifices for the common good.

As we ease back into a new normal of life after COVID, is there an opportunity to play leapfrog? Can we make economic and social decisions that ignore the actions that hurt the environment? And jump straight towards a new post-COVID normal that also supports human’s continuing presence on Earth while absorbing an accelerated Future of Work?

Regardless of whether we’re able to turn the clock on climate, Weather and all its ripple effects are going to impact what started as the Future of Work and will soon be the new Nature of Work.

There is a tight synergy between these events. 

Bottom line, climate acts as a magnifier for all the issues facing the Future of Work. 

We have a shrinking window within which to effect change – and the COVID crisis has gifted us with the vision that it is possible for peoples from all nations to work together quickly, to make momentous decisions with speed, to dissolve the invisible constraints we had placed on our ability to take action.

Enjoy this replay of an episode that I taped in 2019 about the inevitable impact of climate & environment on all our job choices as we move forward.

I talk about why I feel it is important to include a discussion of the impact of Climate Crisis and Climate Catastrophe in any conversation with GenZ as they debate their options in the Future of Work.

Mitigation is a great opportunity and a necessary one for the protection of our planet.
But there are also opportunities in the discussion on how we prepare for a new version of our world. In both, there is a space for activism and innovation.

I seek to inspire a new generation to fight with all the tools at their disposal - their voice, their brain and their ideas, not purely to scare them.

I look forward to an engaging dialogue.

References:

• Link to article What connects the Future of Work with climate catastrophe?
• JFK speech given at Rice University Texas on September 12, 1962 available with transcript from the JFK library
• Xiuhtezcatl Martinez speech at the UN
• Xiuhtezcatl Martinez Who am I rap at the UN

 

Host: Karena de Souza
Producer: Karena de Souza
Music for this episode: Bright Future by Silent Partner for the intro,  Cellophane_Sam, Awestruck from the album Sea Change for the 2019 episode
Technology: taped on MacBook Air, using Audacity, Blue Yeti Nano
Processing: Audacity with apologies to all sound engineers out there
Photo credit: John-Cameron-1518022-unsplash.jpg