Let's Not Talk About It

Humanity’s greatest challenges remain, despite the pandemic having relegated them to the background

- Ashwin Sanghi

A virus that was possibly spawned in a Chinese laboratory has played havoc with the world over the past two years. As I write this, there have been 209 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 4.4 million deaths globally. The good news is that around 4.5 billion doses of vaccines have been administered. And while it is true that new variants of the virus keep emerging with frightening regularity, it is equally true that safety guidelines, urban management, hospital protocols, scientific research and large-scale immunization may allow humanity to emerge from this war to see another day.

But the pain of stubbing your toe is felt only until you bang your head even harder. Alas, the challenge of fighting Covid-19 has relegated all other issues to the back-burner. I have always maintained, and continue to hold, that humanity’s greatest challenges in the 21st century will be climate change, water scarcity, population-resource disparity, power imbalance, and ideological extremism. These issues may have receded into the background owing to Covid-19, but they remain. A pigeon closes its eyes upon seeing a cat, hoping that the cat will magically vanish as a result. That is precisely what the world is doing with the most pressing issues of our times.