What is the impact of COVID-19 on human systems and what can we learn from non-human ecosystems? Patrick Keys, lead scientist for the School of Global Environmental Sustainability, took part in an invited panel discussion on the subject with Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

The talk is part of the new Earth Institute Initiative on Communications and Sustainability at Columbia University. Andy Revkin, director of the initiative, led the discussion which also included Saleem Ali, professor of energy and environment at the University of Delaware and Deborah Brosnan, marine scientist and disaster-risk/resilience analyst.

Keys discussed some important takeaways from the webinar. “It’s a huge challenge to communicate an uncertain, unfolding, global pandemic in an effective way to non-epidemiologists,” he said. “We need to create more capacity across all aspects of society to understand changes that are nonlinear – whether they are pandemics or anything else.” Keys also noted that using web-based interactive platforms to communicate, like the SUSTAIN WHAT livestream, “can be a really fun and easy way to interact with new audiences.”

You can watch more videos with Revkin as part of his SUSTAIN WHAT series, which can be found on Periscope and YouTube.