Pandemics—Lessons Looking Back from 2050

An idealistic scenario from 2050, looking back to the origin and evolution of the coronavirus over the last three decades, where there is widening human awareness of how the planet actually functions and the myopic policies that have driven inequality, poverty, pandemics, and rising social and environmental losses.  Today in 2050, economies have become regenerative and poverty gaps and inequality have largely disappeared, as well as the ideologies of money and market fundamentalism.

By 2050, pandemics have been stabilized by better public health systems, preventive care, and development of effective vaccines and drugs.  Slaughter and consumption of animals has dropped dramatically, with a global shift to plant-based and saltwater-grown foods.  The global climate has stabilized, and our lives are less stressful, healthier, and more satisfying.  Today’s eco-cities with ample green spaces include food grown in high-rise buildings, and streets reclaimed by pedestrians, cyclists, and scooters.  Millions are served by microgrid cooperatives powered by renewable electricity. Mass tourism and travel in general has decreased radically.  Profit-making monopolies were broken up by 2025, and are now regulated as public utilities