Several writers have noted the parallels between the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis. Recently, Prof. Chuck Kutscher, a Fellow and Senior Research Associate of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute at the University of Colorado-Boulder, published an article on the subject wherein he notes four specific parallels that clearly encapsulate how our responses to these two disasters are mirroring one another on a societal level:
We are failing to heed warnings from experts.
We are failing to comprehend the delay between the problem and its effects.
We are allowing ourselves to be led by misinformation campaigns.
We are electing politicians at the federal level who are shirking their responsibility to lead.
As Kutscher notes: “It’s important we recognize that the blunders we’ve made in addressing the coronavirus are the same ones we’re making in addressing the much bigger climate change crisis. Climate change impacts have greatly worsened over time, but we have continued to ignore the warnings. The delay between our burning of fossil fuels and the environmental consequences has lulled us into a state of inaction, and this has been exacerbated by an ongoing disinformation campaign. We’ve been scaling back — and even reversing — federal action at the exact time we should be accelerating it.”
You can read the whole article here.