The Scientist - USA (2020-11)

Looming Change

I

n this topsy-turvy year, the world has been waylaid by a viral pan-

demic. But a larger and more intractable menace churns in the

background, continuing to wreak havoc while humanity’s atten-

tion is diverted. Climate change remains arguably the most press-

ing threat we face as a species. And despite signs of hope earlier this

year as lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic grounded

airplanes, shuttered businesses, and garaged cars, the problem is not

abating. Humanity must be able to fight disease while simultane-

ously keeping our sights trained on the persistent and snowballing

effects of global warming. If we are not up to this task, the hell of

2020 will pale in comparison to the challenges we’ll face.

The first few months of the pandemic provided a glimpse of

what a planet given respite from the relentless pressure of mod-

ern human inhabitance might look like. In April, people in Pun-

jab, India, snapped photos of the Himalayas, more than 100 miles

aw ay, a sight usually obscured by smoggy skies. The International

Energy Agency published a report that same month that the globe

was on track to reduce CO 2 emissions by 8 percent compared to

2019 levels—an unprecedented drop.

All this sounded like a rare spot of good news in an otherwise

disconcerting year. But alas, the sense that nature might be able

to quickly heal over the scars of human activity was short-lived. As

economies reopened, we took back to our petroleum-fueled modes

of transportation, and fossil fuel–powered factories revved back up to

continue their belching of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. By

mid-May, levels of several air pollutants in China, including ozone, sul-

fur dioxide, and fine particulate matter, had rebounded to concentra-

tions above levels recorded in April and May of last year, according to

an analysis by the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and

Clean Air. And globally, CO 2 emissions have been creeping back up as

the planet’s human inhabitants return to something close to business

as usual. By early June, global emissions had rebounded to within 5

percent of mean 2019 levels, up from an average 17 percent reduction

in early April, according to data published by the Integrated Carbon

Observation System.

There have also been negative effects of the COVID-19 pan-

demic on the environment. Pre-pandemic, humans were already

dumping an unbelievable amount of plastic—8 million metric tons

per year—into our oceans, the eventual destination for much of our

waste. But with the uptick in the use of products such as dispos-

able plastic packaging, bags, and cutlery as well as personal protec-

tive equipment, this year is set to outpace 2019’s outflow of plas-

tic waste by 30 percent, according to a paper published in June in

Environmental Science & Technology.

While a pandemic the size and scope of COVID-19 demands

immediate attention, action on climate change and other environ-

mental crises cannot be shelved. Wildfires in the western US and

hurricanes in the South remind us that even though we’re busy try-

ing to address a pressing public health emergency, global warm-

ing isn’t put on pause. This persistent concern should inform how

we strategically emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and enter a

world where we live with the chronic problem of SARS-CoV-2 and

likely future epidemics. “A n y economic recovery packages designed

to help economies fully rebound need to focus on zero-carbon cli-

mate resilient investments that address unemployment but avoid

locking us into a new high-carbon future,” Bob Ward, a policy direc-

tor at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the

London School of Economics, told The Guardian in June.

I was heartened to see that, in both the US presidential debate and

the US vice presidential debate that have been held as of this writing,

climate change questions were posed to the candidates, something

that did not occur in the debates running up to the 2016 US election.

After the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us, humanity

must learn to navigate a world changed by the ravages of a novel virus

at the same time that we address not-so-novel problems with how

Homo sapiens affects our planet and the organisms we share it with. g

Editor-in-Chief

[email protected]

FROM THE EDITOR

11.2020 | THE SCIENTIST 9

As the world comes to grips with the new reality wrought by COVID-19,

the risk of catastrophe from a warming planet persists.

BY BOB GRANT

ANDRZEJ KRAUZE