I haven’t thought of a holiday in two years. This isn’t unusual given my lack of interest in meeting new people and an absence on social media platforms that eliminate the need for photographs. It has made me think about how everyone I know travels though. I have been thinking about where my family and friends go, why they choose the places they feel a need to visit, and how they spend their time when they get there. These seemingly innocuous decisions may have to be re-evaluated in the years to come, given what epidemiologists have been saying over the past few months.

We are being asked to expect a pandemic every five years from now on or, at the very least, a few more outbreaks from mysterious viruses over the course of our lifetime. We have been warned, repeatedly, that this isn’t a question of ‘if’ as much as ‘when’, and that we should prepare ourselves for the unexpected. We have spent the past century doing as much damage to the world we live in, and the world has begun to fight back. I hope this changes how we look at the idea of sustainable living going forward or, at the very least, how we choose to holiday when that possibility finally arrives.