FROM COVID TO CLIMATE CHANGE
LESSONS OF THE CURRENT CRISIS TO INFORM THE NEXT
BY SARAH LOWES T
he pandemic has taught us that no matter who we are, what matters most is our health and well-being. While dramatically higher temperatures seem far off
in the future for us in the global north, the poorest countries, those least responsible for rising global temperatures, are experienc- ing climate change-induced food insecurity and having to decide between starvation or migration. It is only a matter of time before the health and well-being of everyone on the planet are compromised by climate inaction. If we in the global north wait until we feel the impacts directly, we will be acting far too late. Katharine Hayhoe, Ph.D., Director of
The Climate Center at Texas Tech Univer- sity, in her conversation with Neil deGrasse Tyson on the StarTalk podcast describes the relationship between the pandemic and cli- mate change. Here are five lessons from our current crisis that should inform how we move forward:
1. This is not our last pandemic. COVID-19 is classified as a zoonotic disease, which is a disease that is transmissible from animals to humans. As climate change accelerates, hu- man and animal populations will continue to collide. Increasingly fragmented natural en-
8 ETFO VOICE | SPRING 2021
vironments, due to biodiversity loss, reduced pollination, poorer air, water and soil qual- ity, increased urban expansion, reduced food supply, droughts, fires and flooding, mean we will have more contact with animal popula- tions that have nowhere to go.
2. Marginalized communities are the most impacted by crises. While some can afford to have groceries delivered to air-conditioned houses with high-speed internet, marginal- ized people have disproportionately strug- gled to maintain work or have been forced into high risk, if not unsafe, working condi- tions to provide food for their families. Ra- cialized communities and individuals from lower-income households are overrepre- sented in COVID-19 cases (“From risk to re- silience: An equity approach to COVID-19,” Public Health Agency of Canada). The more affluent we are, the more insulated we are from the impacts of climate change. We in the global north may not be fully internal- izing the impacts of the climate breakdown at this moment. On the other hand, food in- security in Burundi due to extreme droughts and flooding is a reality; Burundi produces almost no carbon emissions.
3. We must inoculate our communities against misinformation. Disinformation cam- paigns about climate change are financed by
the same organizations that have spread con- spiracy theories about the pandemic. Con- spiracy theories are especially rampant on social media like TikTok, where 30-second PowerPoints with animation indicate valid- ity. Knowing that 54 percent of teens access news from social media (“Teen News Engage- ment,” Common Sense, 2019) discerning fact from fiction and emphasizing evidence-based thinking has never been so important. Abbie Richards’ viral Conspiracy Chart is a helpful visual in assessing when speculation becomes science denial and harmful to individuals and societies. In a society where some people be- lieve their internet searches lead them to know more than experts, investigative reporting and fact verifying at
Snopes.com is another valu- able tool for fostering informed citizens.
4. Solutions are here; system change is not. To meet the Paris Climate goals of reducing the warming of the planet to 2°C (we are already at 1°C), we will need to reduce our carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030, 100 percent by 2050, and then shift to removing carbon from the atmosphere. During the peak of the pandemic, emissions in individual countries decreased by 26 percent on average (See Tem- porary reduction in daily global CO2 emis- sions during the COVID-19 forced confine- ment, 2020). Though strict lockdowns and
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