Drawing Climate Lessons from COVID-19
Welcome to the Climate Museum’s first blog post.
There are many lessons to be drawn from the COVID-19 crisis for our engagement with the climate crisis, and more generally many points of connection between this pandemic and climate change. Here’s an annotated list of writings that make these connections — sometimes explicitly, and sometimes in counterposition. The list is opinionated and non-comprehensive.
There are instructive if loose parallels between the two crises, and instructive differences too. In addition to carrying lessons for us on climate, COVID-19 may have a number of more direct impacts on the climate crisis. And both the pandemic and climate change have important things to teach us about ecology.
We’ll also blog about other subjects — for example, what brought team members to cultural work on the climate crisis at the Museum. We’ll ask our advisors and partners to blog within their areas of expertise as well. If there’s anything you’d like to see us blog about, comment below or email us at info@climatemuseum.org.
1. Both COVID-19 and climate change demand social policy that is…
First, based on science and evidence
How COVID-19 Is like Climate Change — Scientific American
“Scientific ignorance can be fatal — particularly if ignorance starts with the U.S. president and trickles down from there. It was scientifically incorrect for President Trump to dismiss the coronavirus as no worse than the seasonal flu.”
6 Ways Trump’s Denial of Science Has Delayed the Response to COVID-19 (and Climate Change) — Inside Climate News
“Presdient Donald Trump has made statements that ignore, question or distort mainstream science. But long before the virus arrived — even before he became president — he was using similar techniques to deny climate change.”
Do us a favor — Science Magazine
“Maybe we should be happy. Three years ago, the president declared his skepticism of vaccines and tried to launch an antivaccine task force. Now he suddenly loves vaccines. … But do us a favor, Mr. President. If you want something, start treating science and its principles with respect.”
… second, affirmatively egalitarian and compassionate
Ten Equity Implications Of The Coronavirus Covid-19 Outbreak In The United States — NAACP
“The novel coronavirus pandemic underscores the ongoing need to push for affordable, quality health care coverage; a well-trained, diverse health care and medical research workforce; and accessible sources of care (hospitals, Federally Qualified Health Centers) for all.”
The Stark Inequality of Climate Change — The New Yorker
“In the age of climate change, “natural” disasters are especially stark illustrations of these patterns: they are exacerbated by atmospheric changes resulting, largely, from making the lives of the comfortable even more comfortable; and the burdens fall on people who are made more vulnerable by visible political choices, not just because of the accident of geography.”
…and third, globally collaborative.
What can the coronavirus teach us? — The New Yorker
“In order for substantive progress to take place to stymie the climate crisis, humanity needs to operate from a standpoint of intergovernmental solidarity, empathy, equity, and moral clarity. These should be the pillars on which we forge the pathway to a sustainable future.”
Coronavirus and climate change are two crises that need humanity to unite — International Institute for Environment and Development
“Perhaps the pandemic will produce changes that make societies more willing to act on the climate crisis in the long run. Strengthening recognition of our interdependence — that everyone’s health is everyone else’s business — could strengthen the understanding that compassion and empathy are functional traits for humanity.”
2. Both of these crises require aggressive response to risks not yet fully expressed, which is difficult.
Climate Change Has Lessons for Fighting the Coronavirus — The New York Times
“Precisely because we are bad as individuals at thinking about tomorrow, economists and psychologists say it’s all the more important to have leaders enact policies that enable us to protect ourselves against future risk.”
Coronavirus Shows Us Rapid Global Response To Climate Change Is Possible — Teen Vogue
“Pandemic response is simply trying to mitigate a disaster, while urgent climate response is not only mitigating disaster, but actively creating a better world. … Once the coronavirus gets under control, the world cannot exhale and go back to normal. We need to move on to tackling the other deadly crisis that cannot wait.”
3. Climate change is even harder to respond to effectively than COVID-19 — but the pandemic can help us draw a map.
Why don’t we panic about climate change like we do coronavirus? — MarketWatch
“Perhaps one global crisis can inform the other….Coronavirus is producing an enforced experiment in behavioral change, as increasing numbers work from home and reduce travel, environmentally friendly practices by most measure.”
Why don’t we treat climate change like an infectious disease? — Grist
“Part of the reason people recognize the threat posed by COVID-19 is its novelty. According to [Ed] Maibach, people have a tendency to react strongly — or overreact — to risks that seem new, uncertain, uncontrollable, and life-threatening. COVID-19 displays all of these qualities.”
4. Both crises are driven by our relationship to the broader ecosystem. For example, major shifts in land use toward agriculture accelerate both the climate crisis and the spread of new viruses.
The Man Who Saw the Pandemic Coming — Nautilus
“[The number of animal-to-human spillover events] continues to increase, driven by the huge increase in the human population and our expansion into wildlife areas. The single biggest predictor of spillover events is land-use change — more land going to agriculture and more specifically to livestock production.”
5. The way we’re relating to the rest of the ecosystem is dangerous to our health, and threats can combine. For example, air pollution that causes climate change makes us vulnerable to viruses that attack the respiratory system.
Q&A: A Harvard expert on Environment and Health discusses possible ties between COVID and Climate — Inside Climate News
“We have, as a species, grown up in partnership with the planet and life we live with. So, when we change the rules of the game, we shouldn’t expect that it wouldn’t affect our health, for better or worse. That’s true of the climate. And the same principle holds for the emergence of infections.”
6. Most important of all, COVID-19 will leave us with a very different world. This world, amidst grievous loss and suffering, will provide openings for action to reduce the even more terrible human costs of an unchecked climate crisis.
What the pandemic could mean for climate — The New York Times
“‘Policymakers may try to bail out the conventional energy system and continue on as usual,’ said Michael Webber, chief science and technology officer at Engie, a French energy company. ‘Or they could try to scale back subsidies for fossil fuels, help retrain workers into cleaner sectors, and take the moment to try to address the climate problem.’”
Should airline buyouts come with conditions? — The New York Times
“‘If we give the airline and cruise industries assistance without requiring them to be better environmental stewards, we would miss a major opportunity to combat climate change and ocean dumping,’ read the letter, signed by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, along with seven of his colleagues.”
Climate crisis and Covid-19 conspire to crush oil firms like Tullow — The Guardian
“The combination of weak oil prices and wary investor sentiment means there has never been a worse time to be reliant on fossil fuels and saddled with debt.”
Put clean energy at the heart of stimulus plans to counter the coronavirus crisis — International Energy Agency
“The coronavirus crisis is already doing significant damage around the world. Rather than compounding the tragedy by allowing it to hinder clean energy transitions, we need to seize the opportunity to help accelerate them.”
Click here for our second blog post: More Great Writing on Covid and Climate.
Yale Climate Connections has aggregated a different but overlapping set of writings about COVID-19 and climate. They will be updating it regularly — we recommend following. In addition, Grist just announced it is initiating a newsletter on climate through the lens of the pandemic. We have signed up for this as well!
All of us are on a very steep learning curve, with everything changing from day to day. Especially now, we at the Climate Museum expect to make mistakes. Please help us take advantage of these opportunities to learn. Use the comments section in the blog or send us notes to let us know what we get wrong, what we should do differently, and generally how we can be useful. We can’t respond to everything, but we will read it all.