Whilst the world is still more or less in lockdown, we have noticed many positive changes in our environment. However, will this silver lining last? If we can change our behaviour to fight the global pandemic, can and will we also make long lasting changes to avert climate emergency?
Some of our current behaviour is determined by the understanding and management of risk. Countries that acted quickly and decisively from the outset of the coronavirus crisis fared better than others. Perhaps one can draw a parallel between the coronavirus and climate crisis. People have shown that they can change their behaviour if necessary which should give us hope that we can also make the changes necessary to protect our environment. The key difference may be that being asked to make changes temporarily is one thing, whereas protecting the environment would require far lesser changes, but for much longer, ie dealing with an acute versus a chronic crisis. Also, with few exceptions there appears to be no lobby against fighting coronavirus whereas there is a dedicated lobby for more fossil fuel usage.
Despite the suffering and loss of life and the devastation of the world economy, we have seen some positive side effects. Apart from environmental benefits, our sense of community seems to have strenghened. We witness more communication and working together than competiton with one another and in some instances less isolation during and despite prolonged periods of self-isolation. However, we are hoping and waiting for restrictions to be lifted and cannot survive this crisis without unprecedented financial recovery packages provided by governments around the world. We rely on governments to inject large volumes of cash into the economy over the next year or two and this may be an opportunity to invest in green or more environmentally progressive industries. If politicians prioritise the need to pick up the economy over the need to bend the curve on climate change and greenhouse emissions and instead inject cash into high-carbon assets, we will have wasted the opportunity to address both crises together where the horizons of coronavirus and climate change collide.
Another parallel between coronavirus and the climate emergency is the generational injustice. Older people are much more likely to suffer or die from COVID-19 but younger people are hardest hit by the fallout of the pandemic. Similarly, younger people's future is at risk due to climate change and the lifestyle and economic changes that are necessary to mitigate it are not something that older people ever had to contemplate. Interestingly, the youth climate change protests are a truly global phenomenon in the rich and poor world despite the knowledge that poorer countries will be hit first and worst by climate breakdown, caused primarily by richer countries. Perhaps the realisation that we are all in this together, which applies to the fight against the pandemic as it does to saving our environment, will lead to greater global cooperation. As unintended consequences go, this might not be a bad one.
