Climate change, COVID-19 and war: Triad Litmus Test questioning the conscientiousness for collective action

Abstract

The social processes of industrialisation, modernisation and globalisation create drastic and threatening interventions in human living conditions, particularly in terms of the development of productive forces, market integration, and the relationships that exist between property and power. These social processes continue to prod societies and nation states into the cycle of ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybe’. But again, due to unintended maybes, such pursuit of quantum growth over the years by scientists or science and technology, policymakers, sovereigns, and so on has resulted in errors and deceptions under the guise of acceptable maximum regulation of composition uncovered through proof of causality, coupled with practical experiences of side effects by people in societies. To achieve sustainable development, there is a need to pioneer and/or contribute to debates, queries, and enquiries confronting [in]actions, policies, initiatives, and interventions instituted – or not – to maintain the environment at a life-sustaining level with the attendant economic development. Therefore, the begging question: Are clamours for sustainability merely rhetoric, echoed and re-echoed only when convenient, or are they conscientiously adhered to while pursuing economic prosperity?