Tag: black swan

What’s the next black swan likely to be? A black swan is a potentially dire unexpected event – the pandemic being a perfect example. An Eskom grid failure could be next. Or another devastating drought? A massive cyber-attack? 

2020 started off with significant economic and geopolitical uncertainties, and then the pandemic upended everything, for everyone. Many unknowns remain, not least as to the true extent of the long-term economic damage, and as to who will be the winners and losers when the world properly emerges from lockdown.

COVID-19 is simply a symptom of a deadlier underlying issue: our dominant belief that humanity is separate from and above the natural world. This pandemic was predicted in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, in which a 2007 article explicitly referred to the likelihood of further SARS-like viruses linked to the culture of eating exotic mammals in Southern China.

The coronavirus is an opportunity to end the war with nature. It's a moment to be humble and realise our finitude in a wondrous and infinite natural order. COVID-19 pushed an already weak and crisis-ridden global economy over the edge. Massive value has been erased from crashing stock market prices. Many commentators have talked about the return of economic conditions similar to the great financial crash of 2007-2009.