By Finnur Ricart Andrason, Y13
The Covid-19 outbreak is a global health crisis the world is currently battling. Awareness of this new threat spread quickly and both the public and governments have responded quickly, imposing travel and social gathering restrictions, closing schools and implementing other similar measures.
A similar global crisis that we have known about for decades is global warming. Awareness of this phenomenon and its consequences has increased in recent years, but responses are still far from what they need to be to prevent further harm to our society.
Many parallels can be drawn between these two threats and there is a lot we could learn and apply from the global response to the Covid-19 outbreak in the fight against climate change. The virus is primarily a health crisis which is placing large strains on health systems around the world, which will only grow worse as the pandemic progresses. Similarly, global warming and climate change will carry grave consequences for the health of people all around the world. Examples include increased water scarcity, famines and malnutrition due to more frequent and severe droughts, and the spread of vector borne diseases such as malaria as temperatures rise towards the North. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated an additional 250,000 deaths each year after 2030 as a result of climate change. Furthermore, the United Nations (UN) have predicted that between 200 million and one billion people will be forced to flee their homes due to climate change within the next 30 years. These numbers highlight the severity of the climate crisis and put into context how little the world’s leaders are willing to do to combat climate in comparison to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The recent virus is, nonetheless, a significant danger, and controlling further spread requires cooperation between countries and individuals within each country. The same goes for the climate crisis, despite it having a different time frame. If we are to have a chance at preventing uncontrollable climate change, all countries and all individuals must collaborate and contribute their share of effort. The majority of governments along with international organisations provided a rapid response to the Covid-19 outbreak in order to reduce the death toll as much as possible. Repercussions of these responses on the global economy are already apparent and are likely to become more pronounced in the coming months. However, our society seems prepared to accept them. This mindset is missing from the fight against the climate crisis. All countries must react quickly and must be prepared to accept the ensuing consequences. The origin of the climate crisis should simplify the prevention of its progression. Unlike Covid-19, climate change is a result of human activities. Ongoing unsustainable consumption of fossil fuels to feed continuous economic growth, along with other habits of overconsumption directly accelerate global warming and climate change. This is something we can and must change.
Certain groups of people are more vulnerable when it comes to being infected with the Covid-19 virus: the elderly and individuals with underlying conditions. In the case of climate change, it is the least developed countries where health systems and economies are already under stress and where people already live in conditions of high food insecurity. It is the responsibility of developed countries such as Iceland, Switzerland, and the US to take action, put in place concrete measures to prevent further climate change and to deal with the inevitable consequences. In a similar manner, it is the responsibility of the youth, who seems to develop milder symptoms when infected with the Covid-19 virus, to avoid infection in order to prevent the further spread of the virus, shielding the elderly and others at high risk.
The Covid-19 outbreak has demonstrated the ability of governments and people around the world to respond rapidly and cooperate in an effective way, in order to combat international threats. Hosting dozens of international conferences was not necessary for countries to implement severe measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 and neither should it be necessary for countries to do so to prevent the climate crisis. The science is clear, the solutions are at our disposition. Let us take to action together now and do what must be done.
