Checking In with @waterkeepermark and Swim Drink Fish Ambassador Wade Davis
Mark is Checking In with Swim Drink Fish Ambassadors about living with social distancing. Here, Wade Davis answers Mark’s questions.
Wade Davis is an ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker. Davis holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. He travels the globe to live alongside indigenous peoples and document their cultural practices in books, photographs, and film. Wade Davis is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, and he has published 185 scientific and popular articles.
MM: How are you doing?
WD: Just fine.
MM: Where are you living and what are your daily routines?
WD: Gail and I are hunkered down on our little island near Vancouver, like school children who have stumbled upon a summer vacation they hadn’t expected. All my spring plans took a detour to the car wash, as we say here, just like everyone’s all around the world. I was to have been in seven countries, with some forty speaking events through the end of May, many related to promotional efforts for a new book originally scheduled for an April 14 launch in the UK, US, and Canada. Knopf has put on hold its entire spring list - not only are bookstores shuttered, supply chains are so disrupted that printers are having trouble sourcing paper. Just one small window into the economic consequences of the crisis. But I'm enjoying the moment, writing a new book, spending a lot of time in the garden, and planting an apple orchard.
MM: What are you looking forward to most?
WD: A devastating electoral defeat for Trump and a complete route of the Republican members of the U.S. Congress.
MM: Do you believe the Covid-19 crisis will leave lasting scars on our world? If so, how?
WD: Never in our lives have we experienced such a global phenomenon. It's almost uplifting to know that virtually everyone on earth is sharing the same concerns and uncertainties, with all focused on the well being of their families and communities. Maybe we'll finally awake to the reality that we are biological beings inhabiting a living planet.
My predictions?
Having discovered the ease of working from home, employers and employees will hesitate before returning to a daily commute that consumes two to four hours - all aggravation and wasted time, costly to the individual and environment.
Retail will continue to suffer; shopping malls as destinations and shopping as recreation will be a thing of the past.
The speaking business will increasingly go online. Who wants to fly to Halifax to speak to 400 people when an online event can reach 4,000 people?
It will be some time before people flock to concerts, shoulder to shoulder with sweaty and frothy-mouthed strangers. I would not invest in movie theatres, or the cruise ship industry. Air travel, already a nightmare, will not rebound, at least not immediately.
There will be action on climate change.
People will note which countries fared better in the crisis. And note that women leaders did the best of all.
Massachusetts has 6.8-million people, 62,000 Covid-19 cases currently, and 3,562 deaths. That’s 52 per 100,000.
British Columbia 5-million people 2,112 Covid-19 cases currently, and 111 deaths. That’s 2 per 100,000. Vancouver is next door to Seattle, ground zero for the U.S. outbreak, and home to an enormous Asian population with daily flights to China and all points Asian.
The role of government will be affirmed.
Rampant inflation as governments everywhere have no choice but to print money to support the economy and people.
MM: If you were a marine animal, what would it be?
WD: A Greenland shark, I'd like to live 200 or even 300 years.
MM: Are you currently involved in any citizen science engagement in your community? Swim Guide? Gassy? Monitoring Hub? iNaturalist? Other?
WD: No, but I would like to be, here on Bowen Island.
Read more from the Checking In with @waterkeepermark series:
Tanis Rideout
Jennifer Baichwal
Joseph Boyden
Dave Bidini
Denise Donlon
Connect with us on Twitter, @LOWaterkeeper and @waterkeepermark.
