Bruce Bisset: Let's build a new normal

Bruce Bisset

COMMENT:
In crises you discover whether the people who run things are capable of being visionary or not. Based on the signals now coming from business and government leaders, the answer is no.

Yes, the Government's response to the novel coronavirus outbreak has been clear, firm, and apparently timely enough to keep New Zealanders insulated from the worst-case scenarios.

And yes, the economy is taking a huge unprecedented hit as a result of that response; that's the price we must pay to avoid mass death.

But when it comes to recovery and what things might look like in a post-pandemic world, it's becoming clear our existing captains of industry, commerce and governance have no clue how to operate outside "business as usual".

Sure, they've only just started talking about what should be done to re-build, but already we have Shane Jones, backed by the big business lobby, spouting simplistically "build more roads" as a solution.

As if that is in any way a sustainable blueprint for the future.

See, the base conundrum is that the world cannot return to "normality", because normality is what caused the problem.

Whether you accept that this particular disease was a direct or indirect result of climate change, certainly the widening spread of infectious diseases like malaria and dengue fever is firmly climate-related - which is why both now threaten to invade northern Australia.

The point is that "normal" is a moveable feast, one that thanks to our own actions is moving against and feasting on us.

So here's a novel idea: let's revise "normal".

Examples of what life in a "revised normality" might be like now abound. The fact Auckland's air quality has improved by up to 80 per cent since lockdown primarily because of so much less nitrous oxide being emitted from vehicles shows how quickly and dramatically we can change our environment – if we care to.

One upside of that reduction will, I predict, be dozens if not hundreds fewer illnesses and deaths from respiratory infections in our cities, especially if it's a trend continued into winter.

That's the sort of "environmental bottom line" - our health, and the health of our ecosystems - we should, always, be taking into account in any new project design.

Instead, we're locked in to "build more roads"-thinking which blunders on as if there are no negative consequences.

Tens of billions of dollars will be spent in Aotearoa to "recover" from the economic impacts of Covid-19. Before we start spending it, how about we ask ourselves not only what we want to spend it on, but why.

Think about what sort of "new normal" we could build with those billions.

More non-hydro renewable generation? A decent rail network? Comprehensive recycling facilities? How about an NZ-based electric vehicle manufactory?

For that matter, how about subsidising changes in land-use to support the widespread creation of eco-villages based on permaculture principles – providing employment, housing, surety of supply, top-end product and sustainable practice heading into an increasingly uncertain future.

Not to mention restoring our waterways to swimmable status and reforesting (with natives) land which is marginally productive. Oh, and allowing the ocean to restock with fish.

There's a "new normal" I would happily pay to see. But – the Greens possibly excepted - I don't hear anyone in any sort of position of power advocating that.

It comes down to this: what is essential for our collective future wellbeing?

We can stay part of a diseased and dying debt-laden dependency, or we can start to build something new and healthy.

Please, let's not waste what's probably our last real opportunity.

• Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet. Views expressed are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's.