Without a doubt, upon discovering
the corona virus China reacted swiftly – building two huge hospitals in only two weeks and also placing 50 million citizens under quarantine.
Certainly, these measures led to some success. Since February 19, in China, the
number of newly recovered patients has been greater than the number of newly
infected every day.
Because the health crisis still
spread around the world, other countries too initiated drastic measures to
combat the problem:
·
At least 73 airlines canceled
flights to China.
·
43 countries have enacted entry
restrictions on travelers from South Korea.
·
Multiple countries called upon their
citizens to refrain from unnecessary travel abroad.
· After the number of people infected
in Northern Italy soared to 130, the Italian government put 11 towns in the affected
region on lockdown and Venetian authorities shut down the immensely popular
Venice carnival. Also put on hold – the filming of Tom Cruise’s latest “Mission
Impossible”-adventure of which a part was to be shot in Venice.
·
Japan and Italy closed down schools,
and
·
In Europe, corporate emergency plans
are forcing employees to work remotely.
Regardless of whether one considers
these and other measures sufficient or not, undoubtedly, there is an obvious
urgency about containing and solving the health crisis, probably also fueled by
relentless, 24/7 media coverage questioning what more could or should be done.
Which makes this blogger wonder:
“Why are we not seeing a similar
urgency regarding dealing with the climate emergency?”
Already, every year, natural
disasters kill around 90,000 people and affect close to 160 million people
worldwide.
But, that’s only the beginning. In
2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicted that the climate emergency
would lead to 250,000 deaths per year; in 2020, the authors of a new report in the New England Journal of Medicine called this number a “conservative estimate.”
Yet, no airline is cancelling any
flights because of the increasing climate emergency and no ministry is calling
on anybody to refrain from unnecessary travel abroad; plus, there is no 24/7 debate
on TV whether the government is doing enough to reign in the climate emergency.
In fact, in 2019, broadcast networks covered the climate crisis just 0.7% of the time.
The answer to my question seems to
be James Carville’s most famous phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
Whereas we cannot put a number on
the damage climate disasters will cause in the future we know the financial
damage the corona virus causes right now. China is a manufacturing powerhouse
and the world's second largest economy. As a result 94% of the Fortune 1000 are seeing coronavirus supply chain
disruptions.
Not surprisingly, these problems are
reflected on stock markets worldwide.
But, again, I ask: What does this
tell us with respect to the climate emergency?
China gets hit by typhoons quite frequently. If, in the future, the climate
emergency will produce more super typhoons it will affect the economy and,
additionally, cause damage to Chinese infrastructure which we don’t see during
this health crisis.
Even worse, the climate emergency
can produce multiple disastrous weather events in a row and in multiple
countries, simultaneously. In 2020, which is only in its second month,
Australia suffered catastrophic damage from bush fires, ash rain, dust storms,
flash flooding, and one hailstorm that produced golf ball sized hail. [Video] Right around the same time, the
United Kingdom felt the impact of bomb cyclone Dennis, and winter storm
Ciara/Sabine tore through Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, and Poland.
“Amateurs talk about strategy.
Professionals talk logistics.” – Gen. Omar Bradley
While I am neither a doctor nor an
economist I have been involved with logistics and project planning one way or
the other almost my entire life. Thus, I believe that the corona virus crisis
demonstrates in the most obvious way that the world is woefully ill-prepared
for dealing with the climate emergency.
If right now, the supply of face
masks is a problem how will we deal with water and food shortages due to disastrous
climate events, food scarcity, agricultural degradation, and/or resulting violent
conflicts?
And, that’s just the most obvious
problem because while we may not need face masks all of us do need food.
The financial industry too is well
aware of this real problem. A leaked document from JP Morgan's economists,
dated January 14, 2020, warns that "although precise predictions are not possible, it is clear that the Earth is on an unsustainable trajectory. Something will have to change at some point if the human race is going to survive."
!!
Thus, my advice, if you want to
worry about the big crisis or want to bash the US government on social media,
take aim at the impeding catastrophes the climate emergency will cause and
wonder how your children will survive.
And: Don’t idle your car! It’s the
easiest way to deprive the fossil fuel industry of money they are used to earn.
As the corona virus crisis shows depriving
industries of financial gains seems to be the fastest way to get their
attention and to prompt the world to react decisively.
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Gisela Hausmann is a creative provocateur, nonfiction writer, and environmentalist. Her work has been featured in regional, national, and international publications including Success magazine and Entrepreneur, and on Bloomberg's podcast "Decrypted."
She tweets @Naked_Determina.
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