11 May 2020 - The impact of the coronavirus crisis on climate change
After coronavirus, focus on the climate emergency
(The Guardian, 10/05/2020)
Last month, the Guardian quoted Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, saying if we put post-pandemic bailout money in the wrong place “we will lock ourselves in a dirtier energy system, making it much more difficult to reach our climate targets” (‘Coronavirus profiteers’ condemned as polluters gain bailout billions, 17 April).
We beg to differ. It is game over for preventing dangerous climate change now that governments are planning the cheapest and quickest return to consumption. Riding on the wave of cheap oil and fossil-fuel bailouts is incompatible with keeping the average global temperature rise below 2C, let alone 1.5C.
Climate change: Could the coronavirus crisis spur a green recovery?
Roger Harrabin (BBC News, 06/05/2020)
The Covid-19 lockdown has cut climate change emissions - for now. But some governments want to go further by harnessing their economic recovery plans to boost low-carbon industries. Their slogan is "Build Back Better", but can they succeed?
I've just had a light bulb moment. The feisty little wren chirping loudly in the matted ivy outside my back door is telling us something important about global climate change.
That's because, intertwined with the melodious notes of a robin, I can actually hear its song clearly.
The pandemic isn't fixing climate change
John Sutter (CNN, 27/03/2020)
The internet has deemed 2020 canceled. And now everyone's looking for a silver lining.
But you know what's not a silver lining of this pandemic? Fixing the climate crisis. We haven't fixed it, aren't fixing it, and the way we're talking about all of this is gross.
You've probably seen these headlines — that air pollution and heat-trapping emissions appear to be down as the world economy sits idle. Millions of people are trapped at home while Covid-19, the novel coronavirus, sweeps the globe. We're not consuming in the way that we normally would. We're not flying, driving, gathering, meeting — basically, we're not "doing" at all.
Trump’s New Coronavirus Message: Time to Move On to the Economic Recovery
Peter Baker (The New York Times, 06/05/2020)
Confronted with America’s worst public health crisis in generations, President Trump declared himself a wartime president. Now he has begun doing what past commanders have done when a war goes badly: Declare victory and go home.
The war, however, does not seem over. Outside New York, the coronavirus pandemic in the United States is still growing, not receding. The latest death toll estimates have more than doubled from what Mr. Trump predicted just weeks ago. And polls show the public is not ready to restore normal life.