As Europe begins to tentatively reopen following the paralysing devastation the coronavirus left in its wake, there remain more questions than answers. Nonetheless, leaving all of the political rhetoric and errors of judgement of the past few months aside in a large pile of unopened Pandora’s boxes that we’ll have to get round to sooner or later, we can begin to look back at everything that has changed.
One very noticeable point was how rapidly our inbox filled up with press releases from companies and organisations eager to show us how they were all doing their bit for the crisis. We saw countless companies switching to production of hand sanitiser and its ingredients, 3D printing companies shifting to the manufacture of facemasks, protective gloves and surgical gowns, ventilator firms ramping up production of components for respirators, cosmetics firms taking a moment to concentrate on health rather than beauty. Even the fetish community got involved and we were heartened to receive a press release from a ‘niche’ company that specialised in medically themed adult items telling us it was switching to the real thing and offering their products to the NHS for free. Suddenly, it seemed like every company that had something to offer was able to turn on its heel and pivot its production focus for the greater good.
Which is all wonderful. It showed that, when up against it, perhaps human beings aren’t all the self-serving individuals that certain sources would lead us to believe.
Not long into lockdown, one increasingly noticeable benefit was the effect it was having on the environment. Emissions were down like never before. Anecdotally, birdsong seemed louder, there were more bees, wild deer were witnessed wandering around Romford and nature seemed to be relishing the fact that the humans had finally given it a rest.
The UN’s environment chief Inger Andersen told us that nature was sending us a message, and climate scientists said that Covid-19 was a “clear warning shot” to a civilisation that was “playing with fire”.
This boom for the environment, combined with the rapid pivot in manufacturing, surely begs the question - if industry and the accompanying political will can shift so rapidly in the face of a pandemic, then why has it not done so in the face of an increasingly apparent climate crisis?
Back in April, a survey carried out in the UK by Opinium on behalf of The Observer found that 48% of those asked felt that the government should respond “with the same urgency to climate change as it has with Covid-19”. Only 28% disagreed.
The poll has been described by environmentalists as a ‘green light’ for governments and businesses to accelerate their response in tackling climate change. The beginning of 2020 was pockmarked with climate-related catastrophes such as the wildfires that swept across Australia, themselves coming just a few months after several South American countries watched large swathes of the Amazon burn. After the fires came floods, and it became more and more difficult to pretend that climate change wasn’t happening - though both Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have done a pretty good job at doing exactly that.
Australia fires
A kangaroo rushes past a burning house in Lake Conjola, Australia, on Tuesday, Dec. 31 2019. Photo: Bruce Detorres / Flickr
Both the crises – Covid-19 and global warming - are detrimental to public health, but the latter is by far the deadlier of the two. According to WHO figures, 91% of the world’s population breathes air that contains high levels of pollutants, and air pollution alone – just one facet of global warming - kills over 4 million people every year.
The effects of Covid-19 and climate change place a heavy burden on our healthcare systems and loom like the cold, dark shadow of an existential threat to the future of our species.
Despite the utterly catastrophic impact that a runaway climate crisis would have on the entire planet, it does not strike terror into our hearts like a good old-fashioned virus. So why does a pandemic seem more pressing than climate change?
The answer is multi-faceted and not easy to pin down. Our political leaders are, for all their flaws, still human beings, and a virus is something tangible that strikes fear into the heart in a direct, human way. Rich or poor, we have all been sick, and we all have loved ones. Even the words “virus”, “outbreak” and “pandemic” have an instant impact on our collective psyche.
Also, in practical terms, a pandemic can be responded to on a national level. Closing borders, imposing lockdowns and curfews, and so on, are all things that national governments, as hesitant as they may be to do so, can actually implement with relative ease.
Climate change, on the other hand is a larger, more nebulous concept to get our heads around. A genuine response requires a new and different way of thinking. It requires an international approach, and that usually means navigating disagreements, finding compromise and seemingly endless political hand-wringing. It relies on consensus in a time when polarisation is rife.
And while some national governments are stepping up to the plate, such as Spain - which is set to ban all new fossil fuel projects, aiming for 100% renewable energy – others have festered in various states of self-preservation, incompetence, denial, or outright lies.
This is where industry and business need to ramp up their game. If capitalism is to weather the coming storm it must adapt and recognise that in the 21st century, it is no longer greed but green that is good, to put a spin on Gordon Gekko’s infamous adage.
Genuinely progressive companies of all sizes, across all sectors of industry, can help define what this “new normal” we’re hearing so much about actually looks like, setting their place in history as being on its right side and moving their production to a sustainable position.
The stakes have never been higher and, for all the horror and uncertainty that Covid-19 has brought with it, it has also given us a one-time opportunity to put our houses in order and set a course for a cleaner, fairer, healthier future.
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