Lessons from the Pandemic to Tackle the Climate Crisis
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the dangers of denying science and failing to prepare for catastrophic risk. As threat multipliers, pandemics and climate change have profound similarities. Both global crises threaten lives and livelihoods without regard for human-made borders. Just as with the coronavirus, the worsening impacts of climate change will force countries to grapple with economic upheaval, political instability, and threats to social welfare. Because of their many parallels, the world’s approach to combatting COVID-19 presents a crucial opportunity to assess how we can build resilience to a changing climate. Extracting lessons learned from the globe’s troubled pandemic response will be critical to identify the pivotal shifts society must undertake as it contends with escalating climate risk.
