There is these days no other topic than the Coronavirus . As well as? People die, exclusion zones will be established, public life is lame, it comes to hoarding, the economy, chains are broken, stock prices tumbling, citizens wear face masks and greet with the elbows, schools be closed, and even king football must Covid-19 beat, at least in those countries where the authorities have adopted a event ban.
These drastic measures are important to slow the spread of the Virus. What to think of it, is something else: The comparative views of the other big disaster, climate change. Almost 4,000 people have succumbed to the Coronavirus in the meantime, however, according to the world health organization, the pollution and die alone due to the air each year, seven million people.
threat of uncertain magnitude
by the time we are the Coronavirus, like any pandemic, overcome. In the case of the climate crisis, the time is already expired. The opportunities to comply with the Paris agreement to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius, at five per cent. Even if successful, are to prevent devastating consequences. Millions of climate refugees, water shortage, diseases, extinction of species and to call for a worldwide reduction in the gross domestic product – just to name a few. These relationships are recognized and scientifically proven. Nevertheless, the governments put together are no international contingency plans, and leave even the remembrance of a Swedish teenager.
The Virus is a threat of uncertain magnitude, but most likely, its long-term effects are negligible. Corona will be reflected in global mortality rates, if at all, not because it is especially for old people, a danger, especially for those with pre-existing conditions – whose remaining life expectancy is already low. Unless the Virus mutates and is also for many younger people is dangerous. After that, it’s not.
Psychologically, there is a simple explanation for the striking difference between the reactions to the Coronavirus and the climate crisis. Although the signs of climate change – extreme weather phenomena and the scarcity of the habitat to be getting worse and worse, to make you feel not so. You will be perceived as abstract and far away, both temporally and spatially.
First Corona: participants in the Beijing marathon, Smog, then.
in addition, climate change is a sensitive political items on the Agenda. In fact, it was just points in Switzerland, the Greens in the parliamentary elections. But politics – especially in a democracy, where regular elections are held – a short-term game. Specific measures such as car free cities, or climate taxes are unpopular, because the people are now the victims demand to provide in the future, an incalculable Benefit.
The climate crisis poses a much more serious and exist more commercial of a threat than the Coronavirus. All the more ironic is that in China the response to the Virus such a significant decrease in air pollution, that she is even on satellite images visible. A hopeful teaching is in the at first glance, tasteless comparison between Corona and climate: That it is in the face of an invisible threat is possible to develop a collective sense of urgency. That companies can conduct on a political and personal level, in solidarity. And that the waiver of trips and other amenities is not the end of the world.
Created: 09.03.2020, 13:46 PM
