The COVID19 pandemic is an important lesson for the climate crisis. Not only is it connected because land clearing and intensive animal agriculture are the main contributors to zoonotic diseases but it shows us the weaknesses and the strengths of what can be done to reduce climate change.
I'll start with the negatives so we can finish on a positive note.
The human brain doesn't seem able to cope with multiple consecutive or cascading disasters. We somehow think we deserve time to recover from one disaster before we get hit with the next. How egocentric is that? Nature doesn't actually consider what we want or need. We are part of nature not in control of it. Tathra burnt two years ago and not only are the survivors still not back to "normal" but then Yankees Gap and then Black Summer happened. Each event re-traumatising the survivors of the last. Even those of us fortunate to be on the periphery of the fires lived with the high anxiety, constant threat and smoke for two months. Now we are up to our fourth month of the COVID19 pandemic.
The natural reaction after a disaster is to want everything to go back to "normal" as fast as possible. But "normal " is the cause of the problem. In our desire for normal we recreate the conditions that resulted in the disaster and fail to change either the infrastructure or the behaviour needed to decrease it next time. People are angered by the regulations slowing them down from rebuilding but sometimes we need the time to get past the emergency level of surviving and have the headspace to design new ways of living.
Then throw in the COVID19 pandemic and people lose the community connections so vital for psychological and community recovery. People also lose security of shelter and food because of job losses in our casualised workforce so heavily reliant on tourism. Without these basic needs being met, how can anyone think about the next looming crisises of Recession/Depression and climate change induced disasters and food shortages. COVID19 pandemic made even those of us marginally affected by the fires and with relative financial security want to bunker down and not look any further than our own household cooking, craft and TV/books.
COVID has also demonstrated the interconnectedness of our global economy and our interdependent systems. In Bermagui we saw this when power and communications went down and the roads were blocked. Our "just in time" retail system meant food and fuel were in short supply (not that you could pay for it anyway because our banking requires both energy and communications systems). Food, water and shelter, our basic needs, are vulnerable.
The latest climate change modelling for the next IPCC report suggests that a 7 degree Celsius warming by 2100 (when my granddaughter would be 87 years old) is a high end model possibility. Having experienced 1.2 degrees warming and the results of interconnected systems failures I know that 7 degrees warming is not survivable. How do we live day to day with the knowledge that the future is not survivable? Nowhere is safe, there is nowhere to move, no way an ordinary person can make themselves and loved ones safe.
Some people respond by exerting more control of the things they can control: household cleaning, decoration, cooking or people (domestic violence). Some people try and drown out the reality with distractions: drugs, alcohol, shopping online, video games, or binge TV watching. I suggest that we prioritise what is really important in our lives: people, food, water and shelter and work at both individual and system levels to try and make these resilience and available to everyone.
So are there any positives about COVID and climate action?
The first positive is that COVID demonstrates that if we listen to scientists and their predictions and follow what science says is necessary then we can prevent or minimise deaths and damage. The different reactions of world leaders to COVID and resulting different outcomes has been a real life experiment in listening to and acting on science.
Secondly acting early is better than acting when the problem is obviously bad.
Thirdly change comes in jumps rather than incremental steps if there has been substantial work on it beforehand. COVID forced sudden , drastic changes in both individual and government behaviour proving that inaction is a political choice rather than impossible due to external factors. Not travelling, working from home and increasing Newstart to the more liveable Jobseeker (some countries even introducing a UBI) all happened rapidly. When politicians don't act we know now it is because they don't want to not because it is impossible.
Regardless of what people hope and the government wants, things are not going back to "normal:". We will have a global recession of not Depression. The US has been seen by the international community to be a "failed state" with over 2 million cases and 160000 deaths and counting. And this slow motion train wreck is still in motion. We haven't finished with the pandemic (cases are still rising worldwide and even Australia is losing control of the situation with cases continuing to rise in Victoria and NSW). Summer will be back again in a few months with more fires and extreme heatwaves.
When societies are unstable as they are now it is easier to force change (could just as easily fall the other way into totalitarianism but let's stay positive). I don't think people realise just how fragile and interconnected everything is. Recession/Depression is going to force reduced consumption and increase resilience. The very behaviours that we need for climate solutions also work for Depressions. People in many different communities (including mine) having been working on developing and teaching these skills and behaviours for years. Permaculturalists/Transition Towns/ Retrosuburbanists/Climate Activists can be the yeast of low carbon/lowconsumption living behavioural change in their communities.
So think about basic needs, prioritise resilience in these at an individual level and community level. If you are time rich at the moment learn new skills. Talk to everyone you meet about priorities, values, and resilience. Remind people how fragile everything is with real life examples. Build community using online tools if necessary. Exercise your creative and imagination mental muscles. Resist the natural inclination to bunker down and distract yourself and look reality in the eye and act.
I'll start with the negatives so we can finish on a positive note.
The human brain doesn't seem able to cope with multiple consecutive or cascading disasters. We somehow think we deserve time to recover from one disaster before we get hit with the next. How egocentric is that? Nature doesn't actually consider what we want or need. We are part of nature not in control of it. Tathra burnt two years ago and not only are the survivors still not back to "normal" but then Yankees Gap and then Black Summer happened. Each event re-traumatising the survivors of the last. Even those of us fortunate to be on the periphery of the fires lived with the high anxiety, constant threat and smoke for two months. Now we are up to our fourth month of the COVID19 pandemic.
The natural reaction after a disaster is to want everything to go back to "normal" as fast as possible. But "normal " is the cause of the problem. In our desire for normal we recreate the conditions that resulted in the disaster and fail to change either the infrastructure or the behaviour needed to decrease it next time. People are angered by the regulations slowing them down from rebuilding but sometimes we need the time to get past the emergency level of surviving and have the headspace to design new ways of living.
Then throw in the COVID19 pandemic and people lose the community connections so vital for psychological and community recovery. People also lose security of shelter and food because of job losses in our casualised workforce so heavily reliant on tourism. Without these basic needs being met, how can anyone think about the next looming crisises of Recession/Depression and climate change induced disasters and food shortages. COVID19 pandemic made even those of us marginally affected by the fires and with relative financial security want to bunker down and not look any further than our own household cooking, craft and TV/books.
COVID has also demonstrated the interconnectedness of our global economy and our interdependent systems. In Bermagui we saw this when power and communications went down and the roads were blocked. Our "just in time" retail system meant food and fuel were in short supply (not that you could pay for it anyway because our banking requires both energy and communications systems). Food, water and shelter, our basic needs, are vulnerable.
The latest climate change modelling for the next IPCC report suggests that a 7 degree Celsius warming by 2100 (when my granddaughter would be 87 years old) is a high end model possibility. Having experienced 1.2 degrees warming and the results of interconnected systems failures I know that 7 degrees warming is not survivable. How do we live day to day with the knowledge that the future is not survivable? Nowhere is safe, there is nowhere to move, no way an ordinary person can make themselves and loved ones safe.
Some people respond by exerting more control of the things they can control: household cleaning, decoration, cooking or people (domestic violence). Some people try and drown out the reality with distractions: drugs, alcohol, shopping online, video games, or binge TV watching. I suggest that we prioritise what is really important in our lives: people, food, water and shelter and work at both individual and system levels to try and make these resilience and available to everyone.
So are there any positives about COVID and climate action?
The first positive is that COVID demonstrates that if we listen to scientists and their predictions and follow what science says is necessary then we can prevent or minimise deaths and damage. The different reactions of world leaders to COVID and resulting different outcomes has been a real life experiment in listening to and acting on science.
Secondly acting early is better than acting when the problem is obviously bad.
Thirdly change comes in jumps rather than incremental steps if there has been substantial work on it beforehand. COVID forced sudden , drastic changes in both individual and government behaviour proving that inaction is a political choice rather than impossible due to external factors. Not travelling, working from home and increasing Newstart to the more liveable Jobseeker (some countries even introducing a UBI) all happened rapidly. When politicians don't act we know now it is because they don't want to not because it is impossible.
Regardless of what people hope and the government wants, things are not going back to "normal:". We will have a global recession of not Depression. The US has been seen by the international community to be a "failed state" with over 2 million cases and 160000 deaths and counting. And this slow motion train wreck is still in motion. We haven't finished with the pandemic (cases are still rising worldwide and even Australia is losing control of the situation with cases continuing to rise in Victoria and NSW). Summer will be back again in a few months with more fires and extreme heatwaves.
When societies are unstable as they are now it is easier to force change (could just as easily fall the other way into totalitarianism but let's stay positive). I don't think people realise just how fragile and interconnected everything is. Recession/Depression is going to force reduced consumption and increase resilience. The very behaviours that we need for climate solutions also work for Depressions. People in many different communities (including mine) having been working on developing and teaching these skills and behaviours for years. Permaculturalists/Transition Towns/ Retrosuburbanists/Climate Activists can be the yeast of low carbon/lowconsumption living behavioural change in their communities.
So think about basic needs, prioritise resilience in these at an individual level and community level. If you are time rich at the moment learn new skills. Talk to everyone you meet about priorities, values, and resilience. Remind people how fragile everything is with real life examples. Build community using online tools if necessary. Exercise your creative and imagination mental muscles. Resist the natural inclination to bunker down and distract yourself and look reality in the eye and act.
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