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Eco123 Revista da Economia e Ecologia
Monday, 13th Abril 2020
by Alexandre Moura
“I am from the Algarve and the sea is at the end of my road,” wrote António Pereira, an Algarvian poet, born in Armação de Pera. A poem that expresses the peace and enchantment that the Algarve has and the allure of adventure beyond the ocean. From the city of Faro, where I live, my window has a view over the Ria Formosa and, in the background, the infinite sea. The last few weeks of isolation have allowed me to discover the landscape in more detail: on one side, the hills; on the other, the coast. I wonder about the future, about the present, and about how the world as we know it, or used to know it, will change.
Among the possible scenarios for change, there is one that already seems to be fairly well established. The model of collective existence is changing. Perhaps due to the global economic system, which has built a society essentially trained to live through projection, to live in the future: doing, having, travelling, building, imagining… It seems obvious to me that it’s necessary to have a vision of, or at least to prepare for, the future, but there are large sections of society that base their lives on this projection, so often forgetting the here and now, the present moment, the immediate instant. It seems to me that this is the first change to have taken root as a result of this worldwide pandemic. The perspective, or the position, from which we look at life, society, the world, has become short-term. Today, tomorrow, perhaps a week, has become a more feasible time frame, because, in this present context, making plans for one or two months’ time, or longer, is a difficult thing to do.
We are forced to stop. What will the post-Covid-19 economy look like? How will the planet be in terms of sustainability and what will be its capacity for regeneration? We know that the impact on Nature has been positive, if only for a short time. The information is coming to us from Space. In March, the images and data collected by the Sentinela-5P satellite (the Copernicus Programme run by the European Commission and the European Space Agency – ESA) showed us that there was a reduction of between 20 and 30% in nitrogen dioxide emissions in China. In Italy, in the city of Venice, now deserted and silent, the water in the canals has become clear, something that hasn’t been seen for decades, and it’s now possible to see fish at the bottom of the crystal-clear waters of the canals, along with swans, herons or other species. In Portugal, in early April, a couple of deer were found wandering through a residential area in Odivelas, in the heart of Greater Lisbon.
In recent years, from my window in Faro, I’ve seen buildings and apartments, perhaps too many of them, being turned into tourist accommodation. The price of rented housing has risen drastically and some tenants have been forced out of their homes, like pawns on the chessboard of increased profit margins. It may be necessary to rethink the business model or to allow families to pay a fairer rent. In some countries, this precariousness is once again raising the possibility of implementing a universal basic income or something similar. The times are ripe for change. And to what extent will tourism, the goose that lays the golden eggs in the Algarve, be affected? It’s possible that mobility at an international level will also change.
These are difficult times, but there is a future and the market is getting ready to get back on course. Still with no end in sight for the control of the Covid-19 pandemic, the American magazine Forbes published an article earlier this month, in which it voted the Algarve as the best destination in the world for a foreigner to retire to after the coronavirus, but also as one of the best places in the world to live, followed by Mazatlán, in Mexico, and Cayo, in Belize.
From my window, I usually see countless planes queuing, in a long line, one after another, waiting to enter the runway at Faro International Airport. In the last few weeks, I have been spending a large part of the day and night looking at the horizon, often outside on the balcony. I’ve lost count of the days when I haven’t seen even a single plane flying over the city. I believe that in the present, today and tomorrow, everything will be fine. From my window, I can’t see any further, I see only the mountains and the sea in the distance.
