Dr Eoin McLaughlin and Professor Matthias Beck recently published an article on the Economic Observatory, providing a scholarly assessment of the coronavirus crisis and the environment.
Geared towards policymakers and the general public, the Economic Observatory is a cross-institutional initiative that seeks to answer questions on the economics of the coronavirus crisis and the recovery.
Currently the only academics based in the Republic of Ireland to provide such expert analysis, Dr McLaughlin and Professor Beck’s article looked at the relationship between environmental degradation and the risk of pandemics.
Specifically, they look at the interaction between planetary boundaries (i.e., climate change) and existential risks (i.e., pandemics).
Their article concludes by recommending that future policy-makers think broadly about how to address the fundamental causes of a pandemic (degradation of our natural capital), not just treating the symptoms unleashed by a pandemic.
You can read the article here.