SCIENTISTS CITE POLLUTION DECREASE IN CALLS TO ‘FLATTEN THE CURVE’ OF CLIMATE CHANGE POST-CORONAVIRUS
BY BENJAMIN FEARNOW
Excerpts: Scientists, activists and religious leaders ranging from Pope Francis to filmmaker Spike Lee are highlighting lockdown reductions in air pollution and nature “coming alive” as part of a larger call to permanently change industrial and economic behavior after COVID-19.
Pope Francis said last week that the deadly worldwide coronavirus pandemic is one of “nature’s responses” to humans’ mistreatment of Planet Earth, telling a Catholic U.K. publication that “God always forgives, but Nature never forgives.” This sentiment was echoed by environmental researchers, politicians and activists who are urging world leaders to permanently reduce carbon emissions, air pollution and fossil fuel burning in order to “flatten the curve” of climate change.
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“The blissful sight of blue skies and the joy of breathing clean air provides just the contrast to illustrate what we are doing to ourselves the rest of the time,” Dr. Shashi Tharoor told The Guardian Saturday.
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In the northern region of India, a country which placed its 1.4 billion people on lockdown and kept New Delhi’s 11 million registered vehicles off the roads, Air Quality Index levels improved to their best in decades.
A pair of separate studies published in the online scientific journal Nature this month on rebuilding damaged ocean ecosystems and global warming, respectively, saw researchers seeking to “flatten the curve” of climate change similar to the reversal sought in stemming new COVID-19 cases.
“Our research shows that rapid action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions this decade will effectively flatten the curve of species at risk. Similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, early action to limit the risk pays off in a big way. It does not eliminate all risk from climate change, but reduces the number of species and ecosystems exposed by a massive amount,” study co-author Christopher Trisos, of the University of Cape Town told The Guardian last week.
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Former Vice President Al Gore, who founded The Climate Reality Project, told HBO host Bill Maher Friday there is a clear connection between COVID-19 and climate change, saying both have served as a wake-up call that government leaders can’t simply dismiss dire warnings from scientists. American filmmaker Spike Lee echoed the thoughts of Pope Francis, telling SiriusXM’s The Joe Madison Show Friday that the coronavirus lockdown is “changing everything.”
“But you know why, the reason — how pollution is clearing up. Skies are clear. Animals are coming out. I mean you know, the Earth was angry at us. People may think I’m crazy that I believe it in my heart and soul. That we had gone too far and Earth said, ‘Hold up, we gotta change this.’ We were killing this planet,” Lee said.