Corporations and governments are taking actions to combat the coronavirus threat that they have previously decried as impossible to take to lessen the threat of climate collapse. Airlines are cancelling flights; cruise ships are sitting at docks. People are being advised to stay home and travel less. Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said today: “Our habits need to change. They need to change now.”
In order to lessen the chances of irreversible change to our planet, we need to change our habits now. We need to keep fossil fuels in the ground. We need to fly less. We need to use less. We need to give up comforts. now.
Individuals have said that nothing they do will make a difference.
Corporations have told us that the immediate economic costs of changing our habits is too high.
Governments have insisted that they CANNOT take quick and drastic action.
Those arguments aren’t valid anymore.
Millions of people are changing their habits because of the coronavirus. Millions of people are finding their capacity to tolerate discomfort and disruption.
May all of us – individuals, corporations and governments –have the stamina and political capital as a result of the coronavirus crisis to work together and do what is necessary to respond to the current and coming climate emergency. This is the biggest threat we ALL face – one which we cannot wash our hands of.
