AMBIO: Effects of global shocks on the evolution of an interconnected world
DOWNLOADAugust 23, 2022 - Andrés Viña and Jianguo Liu
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DOI: 10.1007/s13280-022-01778-0
As the world grows more interconnected through the flows of people, goods, and
information, many challenges are becoming more difficult to address since human
needs are increasingly being met through global supply chains. Global shocks (e.g.,
war, economic recession, pandemic) can severely disrupt these interconnections and
generate cascading consequences across local to global scales. To comprehensively
evaluate their consequences, it is crucial to use integrated frameworks that consider
multiple interconnections and flows among coupled human and natural systems. Here
we use the framework of metacoupling (human-nature interactions within as well as
across adjacent and distant systems) to illustrate the effects of major global shocks on
the evolution of global interconnectedness between the early 1900s and the 2010s.
Based on these results we make a few actionable recommendations to reduce the
negative impacts of an ongoing global shock, the COVID-19 pandemic, to promote
global sustainability.
