[NEWS] COVID-19 Taught Us a Lesson. Be Prepared for a Crisis.

"We learned a lesson about the dangers of ignoring

destructive processes and not preparing for the upcoming crisis.

We must “flatten the curve” of climate change.

We must distance ourselves from generating CO2 and urge the governments

to invest in renewable energy and greener deals with corporations."

Have you forgotten about the climate change crisis because of the coronavirus pandemic? Well, remember. We started off 2020 with the biggest wildfires in the history in Australia. 2019 was the second hottest year (the hottest being 2016) of the globe. New York City had its least-snowy winter in 13 years.

There have been some “good news” articles about how COVID-19 is helping our planet by forcing the world to emit much less carbon dioxide. If this counts as a solution to our climate crisis, costing thousands of human lives, I really don’t see a point in saving the planet.

Not only is it not news to celebrate, but also is it temporary. The immediate effect of suspension in production lines and travel is obvious. China currently has a 25 percent cut in carbon emissions. In fact, it’s not the first time China witnesses a rapid reduction in air pollution. Back in 2008, the year Beijing hosted the Summer Olympics, the Chinese government shut down manufacturing factories and stopped vehicle traffic about a month before the games started. China had the bluest sky all summer, only to come back to meeting its gray and smoggy sky once the control measures were lifted.

Individuals experience a reduction in personal carbon footprints due to the change in their consumer habits. This particular side-effect of “stay-at-home” orders is hopeful, only if people decide to maintain a large percentage of their lifestyle after they become allowed to freely roam around the world. If one thinks a cancellation of vacation to Europe is helping the planet, here’s the real number. Aviation accounts for about 2.5% of global emissions.

The coronavirus pandemic has done expansive damage to the global economy in the past 2 months. The timescale in which COVID-19 operates is extremely compressed that a governmental decision today will affect the stock market tomorrow and next week’s case counts. People are dying every single minute. On the other hand, humans have been aggressively harming the planet for about 100 years, since the Second Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century, if not earlier. In other words, climate change moves in a slower fashion than the coronavirus outbreak that we can really take some actions to make a difference in the upcoming times. Climate change is also a crisis, remember?

We now have an ultimate chance to reset and start over. The damage to the global economy seems irrecoverable and there will be no going-back-to-normal or before coronavirus. However, we are going to have to take various, creative and stringent measures to get back on our feet. And the governments will have to prioritize climate change policies or else we will soon meet another global crisis in forms of heatwaves, severe droughts, the unprecedented intensity of flooding and more unprecedented consequences. Not considering climate change in recovering from the pandemic’s impacts is a setback in the global environmental movement. Although climate change so far has mostly affected people on low-income levels, we’re not far from it having an impact on everyone, just like COVID-19.

We learned a lesson about the dangers of ignoring destructive processes and not preparing for the upcoming crisis. The cost of the lesson is immense and becoming more expensive day by day. We must not take this lightly. The pandemic will be over when the weather gets warmer and when we find a vaccine. Solving global climate change issue is not that simple and we are running out of time. We must “flatten the curve” of climate change. We must distance ourselves from generating CO2 and urge the governments to invest in renewable energy and greener deals with corporations.