General

In a Covid world, organisations are turning to videos for strengthening their communication, and reaching a larger audience through impressive social media presence. Videos — with a powerful ability to connect with the audience — are much sought after for meaningful audience engagement when people can’t meet face-to-face. They also enable reflection and dialogue, and have a long-lasting impact on the audience.

While information technology may not be the solution to all the problems ailing the world today, the pandemic has proven that it sure is the adhesive that glues things from falling apart.

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While environmentalists were busy applauding the decline in carbon emissions in the wake of pandemic-induced lockdown in most parts of the world, the Mauna Loa Observatory in the US posted a peak of 417 parts per million of atmospheric CO2 for several days in early 2021. The only time carbon levels exceeded 400 parts per million before this was during the Pliocene era—four million years ago when the average surface temperature was warmer and sea levels were 33-82 feet higher than now—long before man’s entry on the scene.

The world has been witnessing a series of virus spillovers from wild species to humans. The spate of infectious diseases in recent decades –  Chikungunya, Ebola, yellow fever, swine flu, bird flu, SARS, Nipah, Zika – all can be traced to biodiversity loss and the subsequent close interactions between wild species and human beings. Data reveals that infectious diseases have, in fact, tripled every decade since the 1980s, with nearly 60% of these originating in wild animals.