The Pandemic Lens: Focusing across Time Scales for Local-Global Sustainability

Paul Arthur Berkman

doi:10.1016/j.patter.2020.100147

The Pandemic Lens: Focusing across Time Scales for Local-Global Sustainability

Patterns (N Y). 2020 Nov 13;1(8):100147. doi: 10.1016/j.patter.2020.100147.

Author

Paul Arthur Berkman^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), 7 bis, Avenue de la Paix, CH-1202 Geneva 2, Switzerland.
² Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School, Harvard University, Pound Hall 501, 1563 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
³ Science Diplomacy Center, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA 02155, USA.

Abstract

Humanity faces a series of challenges over a range of timescales from minutes to centuries that are relevant to our sustainable development as a globally interconnected civilization. Our common survival at local-global levels depends on being able to understand the urgencies of exponential change across these timescales. The "Pandemic Lens" introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic gives us perspective to operate with informed short-term to long-term decision making for the benefit of all on Earth across generations.

Publication types

News