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Writer's pictureThe Eyes Journal

Is Covid-19 the cure the climate was looking for?

Updated: Jul 29, 2020

By Phoebe Landers

 

As we now emerge from 15 weeks of lockdown, and with some apprehension about what will happen next, any small morsel of positivity is gratefully received by most. In the case of climate activists, this is one huge silver lining we can take from the world being put on pause. Amidst all the terrifying statistics, apocalyptic-like scenes, grave political broadcasts, there are those who continue to bring us good news in these bizarre times. Although physical #schoolstrikesforclimate have been put on hold, Greta Thunberg has once again inspired a generation by adapting these to appear virtually, and many schoolchildren all over the world have followed suit. We have seen images of dolphins in the canals of Venice, which are clearer than they have ever been in living memory, there have been ducks frolicking in the Trevi Fountain, heart-warming footage has appeared of penguins taking a trip through the aquarium to meet other animals, and for the first time in 30 years, the Himalayas can be seen from Punjab in Northern India thanks to a drop in pollution levels. This year could see the fossil fuel industry’s biggest drop in CO2 levels for decades.

A view of the Himalayas from Punjab - Twitter @Deewalia

For many, this appears to be the break the climate needed. There have been countless social media posts about how the Earth needed this time to heal, how this was Mother Nature’s way of pushing the reset button. While all of these things are tonic for the anxious mind of a climate conscious person in lockdown, the impact of Covid-19 for the environment may not be as positive as we are all hoping. The reason we are seeing falling CO2 emissions and pollution in canals dropping is not because of productive action taken by governments, it is because we are entering what will be the greatest economic crisis of the last 100 years, which in itself will have very different effects on the climate, as well as the average person’s livelihood. Most climate activists will say they are so passionate about saving our planet to ensure future generations get to enjoy it as we have, and so that we can begin to slow down the irreversible damage humans are doing to our home. This (hopefully) short-lived halt is not the solution, and this will not be a quick fix for a problem that has been building for many decades.


The current focus is and should be saving lives and ensuring that global economies can survive this meltdown. If anything, Covid-19 and our actions here can serve as a useful longer term metaphor for the climate crisis; many of us knew that if we abided by the rules and sacrificed our time in the short-term, we are saving lives and public welfare systems over the weeks to come. In a similar way, the climate crisis requires action and sacrifices now so as to avoid catastrophe in the coming years and decades, yet the immediacy does not seem to be as commutable to everyone. As we try to recover from this pandemic, the climate crisis cannot be ignored in how we rebuild our economies, but unfortunately, there are already very real negative ramifications for the climate that will come out of this:

  1. As mentioned, the economic crisis triggered in the wake of Covid-19 will be hard to navigate and hard to survive. Many companies and households will be forced to tighten their budgets, and for many, that means reducing green choices that may be more expensive.

  2. Single-use plastic has made a comeback in a terrifying, albeit incredibly useful, way in the name of hygiene and practicality. Conservative US think-tanks have used the fear of Covid-19 to push back on the ban of single use plastic bags in most stores, citing these reusable bags can be a hotbed for virus transmission. The increased use in surgical gloves, disposable masks, more packaging to ensure food hygiene, and so on, have drastically slowed the fight against single-use plastic. French environmental group Opération Mer Propre says that they are finding more and more gloves and masks in the sea off the French coast. The organisation founder warns that this is only going to worsen as PPE is becoming increasingly crucial, and the problem predominantly lies in wearers not disposing of them properly.

  3. Crucial climate conferences are already being cancelled or postponed due to the virus, with the COP26 in Glasgow being postponed to 2021, which seems to ignore the fact that the climate crisis is also an incredibly time-sensitive issue.

  4. Dr Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency has warned that, unless governments include stringent measures to include support for clean energy in their economic recovery packages, any declines in demand for fossil fuels and in emissions could be undone once the pandemic is under control.

More and more masks are being washed up on beaches - Getty Images: The Independent

The UK government recently released an economic recovery plan to rebuild the British economy, with top economists and climate experts advising on greener measures to include. The only measure that seems to have been focused on, however, is home insulation. £3bn has been allocated to improve energy efficiency, both for public buildings and private residences with the hope that this will create 140,000 jobs and create thousands of warmer homes. This is in line with the need to switch all UK houses to low-carbon heating to meet net zero emissions by 2050. The government’s promise, however, to build new social housing may hinder this, unless the plans to introduce a low-carbon home standard (currently from 2025) are not brought forward. Other issues received even less attention in the recovery plan; renewable energy received no new attention, and there was no mention of increasing the use of electric vehicles for public transport. In contrast, France is looking to spend £13bn on its green recovery measures, and Germany surpassing that with a £35bn spend. This recovery plan demonstrates huge opportunities missed, opportunities to rebuild our economy with the planet at the forefront, and to capitalise off this reset to change our policies for the better. Unfortunately, the plan seems to follow well-known patterns; the right things were said prior to the plan’s release, but none of these promises were acted on sufficiently to trigger a green recovery. This is to such an extent, that campaigners are threatening legal action against the government on the grounds that the plans are inadequate and do not align with the government’s obligations under the UK’s net zero target and the Paris climate agreement.


Image: Toby Melville / WPA Pool / Getty

Without wanting to compound the negativity that pervades the media in the current situation, it is crucial that we are aware of the importance of how we recover from this pandemic, and ensure that the planet is at the top of the priority list as we begin to rebuild our countries. We are allowed to take the positives as they come, and use them to engender hope that real progress is possible if we continue to move in the right direction. There is significant hope that this cultural reset will force us to readdress our relationships with travel, with wildlife, with unnecessary practices that are harmful to our long-term future. We have to use this momentum, and encourage better habits, but we cannot allow the climate crisis to get lost or replaced by a bigger or more immediate issue, and its aftermath, and we cannot be fooled into a false sense of security that this is all that needs to be done.

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