We are hard-wired to take care of the here-and-now, says Elke Weber, behavioral scientist at Princeton University. We have evolution to thank to that, but it means we are bad at planning for a changing future. The climate change lesson for the Corona Virus is politics and psychology stand in our way when we try.
Climate Change Lesson for the Corona Virus and Global Warming
Therefore, both phenomena demand quick, aggressive action echoes Kim Cobb, climate scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology. That’s because we will only know by hindsight how much our alarming levels of inaction in some quarters cost us.
Dr Cobb and colleagues have been urging leaders to reduce emissions for years. But they have raced up regardless, she told New York Times on March 12, 2020. Gernot Wagner, climate economist at New York University says Covid-19 is ‘climate change on warp speed’.
Politics and Psychology in Context of These Twin Crises
Climate change is a victim of vested interests, and is hog-tying meaningful efforts to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. Big money pays for elections, and contributes significant taxes. You can’t insult science when you don’t like what it says, and then make impractical demands says a Science magazine editorial.
Our hard-wired psychology closes the loop. Therefore, the main climate change lesson for the Corona Virus is we can’t confront our immediate future either. The Arctic could be ice free during summer within 20 years. The Amazon forest may be savanna in 50 years’ time, yet our leaders are unable to agree a strategy with timelines.
Gernot Wagner, climate economist at New York University says the novel coronavirus passes critical points in days and weeks, not years. The time scale is radically compressed but nations muddle on in uncoordinated fashion. Poor people without meaningful power already suffer disproportionately in terms of global morbidity. Allowing inaction by default will cause this to continue.
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Preview Image: Distribution of Temperature Anomalies
