From COVID to Climate Change:

Lessons of a current crisis to inform the next

The pandemic has taught us that no matter who you are on the planet, regardless of gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, ability, or political beliefs, what matters most to us all is the health and well-being of ourselves and of our loved ones.

It is only a matter of time before the health and well-being of ourselves and loved ones are compromised due to climate inaction as well.

If we wait until we feel such impacts directly, we will be acting far too late.

5 Lessons we ought to learn from our current crisis to inform the next

1. This is not our last pandemic

COVID-19 is classified as a zoonotic disease, a disease that is transmissible from animals to humans. As climate change accelerates, human and animal populations will continue to collide. Increasingly fragmented natural environments, due to biodiversity loss, reduced pollination, poorer air, water, and soil quality, increased urban expansion, reduced food supply, droughts, fires, and flooding, mean we will have more contact with animal populations that have nowhere to go.

2. Marginalized communities are the most impacted by crises

While some could afford to have groceries delivered to air-conditioned houses with high-speed internet, marginalized people have disproportionately struggled to maintain work or have been forced into high risk if not unsafe work conditions to provide food for their family. Racialized groups and individuals from lower-income households are overrepresented in COVID-19 cases (From risk to resilience: 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 as well. For example, we in the global north may not be fully internalizing the impacts of the climate breakdown at this moment while food insecurity in Burundi due to extreme droughts and flooding is a reality, despite producing almost no carbon emissions.

3. Inoculating our communities against misinformation

The same disinformation campaigns about climate change are financed by the same organizations that have spread conspiracy theories about the pandemic. Conspiracy theories are especially rampant on social media like TikTok, where 30 second powerpoints with animation, and popularity indicate validity. Knowing that 54% of teens access news from social media (Teen News Engagement, 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 believe their internet searches lead them to know more than experts, investigative reporting and fact verifying at Snopes.com is another valuable 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% by 2030, 100% by 2050, and then shift to removing carbon from the atmosphere. During the peak of the pandemic, emissions in individual countries decreased by 26% on average (Temporary reduction in daily global CO2 emissions during the COVID-19 forced confinement, Le Quéré, C., Jackson, R.B., Jones, M.W. et al., 2020). Though strict lockdowns and halting economies are not sustainable long-term solutions for climate change, it does demonstrate that we can take action when we are immediately experiencing a threat. Unfortunately, the climate crisis is slower moving and we cannot afford to wait until we, the global north, are staring climate change in the eyes. There is no shortage of evidence-based solutions to changing our unsustainable practices and trajectory. The question is less what to do and more how to get our systems to change in advance of feeling the impacts.

5. A lesson in leadership

Benjamin Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” to fire-threatened Philadelphians in 1736. Preparing and preventing future risk is not only more affordable, it will also decrease the impacts of climate change and save lives. As witnessed, our political capacity is reduced when urgent stresses to human and wealth are added. In the face of the enormity of our next crisis, our democratic systems will be challenged and can fall without early interventions. According to Human Rights Watch, the best antidote to the rise of populism is “for the public to demand a politics based on truth and the values on which rights-respecting democracy has been built. Populists thrive in a vacuum of opposition. A strong popular reaction, using every means available—civic groups, political parties, traditional and social media—is the best defense of the values that so many still cherish” (World Report, 2017) .

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