Special Report
Updated 4-22-2020:
The climate change activist community has been in awe at the governments around the world and their responses to the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic. Global warming campaigners have been watching closely and taking notes as the virus-induced societal shutdowns have enacted many of the climate activists’ long sought after agenda. The coronavirus government response of austere lockdowns and limited economic activity has inspired climate activists and motivated them to the virus fears to lobby for their climate “solutions.”
The environmental Left has watched as many of the same “solutions” they have advocated for the alleged “climate emergency” were enacted seemingly overnight by governments around the world.
The irony is that the World Health Organization (WHO) has been allegedly leading the fight against COVID-19, but sadly, the WHO — among other problems — had its priorities badly misplaced.
Everything the climate campaigners could have ever hoped for has become a (temporary?) reality with the Coronavirus shutdown of modern society.
Climate activists…
- Hated airline travel, promoted “flight shaming”? Now? The airline industry is wiped out.
- Hated economic growth, the hallmark of the capitalist system. Now? Growth wiped out.
- Called for lower emissions through “planned recession” or “degrowth” policies? Now? Achieved recession or worse — almost overnight.
- Hated eating out at restaurants? Now? The restaurant industry wiped out.
- Called for end of the hated gas-fueled cars? Now? Car driving and sales wiped out as global oil demand drops dramatically.
- Wanted meat-eating stopped? Meatpacking plants closing, demand for meat down as restaurants closed.
- Called for an end to “excess” consumption? Now? Done. Non-essential stores, businesses, movie theatres, vacations, etc shut down indefinitely in response to the coronavirus.
- Wanted kids to skip school to accomplish all of the above climate goals? Now the schools are canceled almost everywhere!
As Peter Barry Chowka observed in American Thinker: “Overnight, our society is doing what radical leftist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and her fellow Green New Deal fanatics have demanded: An almost total end to air travel; personal automobile travel down to a trickle; promises of free health care for all quickly becoming the new status quo; and the ability of people to sit at home without working and receive a paycheck from the government. The Democrats want that to continue indefinitely.”
And prominent climate activists have revealed they will not hesitate about enforcing these types of regulations in the name of climate change.
In February of 2020, then-Democratic presidential candidate and mega climate funder Tom Steyer, laid out his plan for a climate police state. “I will declare a state of emergency on climate on the first day of my presidency. I will use the Executive emergency powers of the presidency to tell companies how they can generate electricity, what kind of cars they can build — on what schedule, what kind of buildings we’re gonna have, how we are going to use our public lands,” Steyer declared. “We need to rebuild this country in a climate-smart way…we don’t have a choice on this,” he added.
There have even been calls for military enforcement of climate regulations. In 2019, University of Copenhagen international relations professor Ole Wæver explained: “If there was something that was decided internationally by some more centralized procedure and every country was told ‘this is your emission target, it’s not negotiable, we can actually take military measures if you don’t fulfill it’, then you would basically have to get that down the throat of your population, whether they like it or not.”
The climate activist community has been waiting for decades for this type of muscular government intervention in the economy and society. They have long sought to seize the opportunity to impose their world view, central planning and the banning of what they deem are non “climate-friendly” aspects of our lives and remake society in their image.
In short: If you like living under the coronavirus fears and government-mandated lockdowns, then you’ll love living your life under a “climate emergency”.
The climate movement may now be poised to plan and dictate a new “earth-friendly” world in the aftermath of the coronavirus. The climate activists quickly began to mobilize how to use the governments’ response to the coronavirus pandemic as a model for the climate scare.
#
Sampling of Key Coronavirus ‘Hall of Shame’ quotes (from March/April 2020)
“The brakes placed on economic activities of many kinds, worldwide, have led to carbon emission cuts that would previously have been unthinkable…What was once impossible (socialist, reckless) now turns out not to be, at all.” – UK Guardian editorial staff
“Nature is sending us a message” with coronavirus & climate change. “Let’s not let this crisis go to waste.” Coronavirus offers “a chance to do capitalism differently.” “Government has the upper hand, it must seize the moment.” – Prof. Mariana Mazzucato of University College London in UK Guardian
“Neither Greenpeace, nor Greta Thunberg, nor any other individual or collective organization have achieved so much in favor of the health of the planet in such a short time.” – “There are also positive aspects. As said by the proverb, every cloud has a silver lining…This positively affects the reduction of CO2 emission and the whole wave the destruction associated with holiday and professional conference tourism…It is certainly not very good for the economy in general, but it is fantastic for the environment.” — Astrophysicist & Philosopher Martín López Corredoira
“One beneficiary will be the climate: after all, the world’s lungs are already breathing more easily thanks to the collapse of industrial production. Who is to say that this pandemic does not provide a turning point in world history.” – Oxford University Global History Professor Peter Frankopan on the coronavirus
“[The UN Sec. Gen. said] the pandemic could create an opportunity to rebuild the global economy along more sustainable lines.” – UN Secretary-General António Guterres as reported by Scientific American
“Coronavirus Response Should Be a Model for How We Address Climate Change…If we can shut the world down to stop a virus, that also means it is possible to do the same for climate change. Treat all emergencies like emergencies!” – “What would it look like when the world actually decides to take on the climate crisis? It would look like what we’re seeing right now…Everyone stopping everything and putting the world on pause to deal with the immediate crisis at hand.” – Teen activist JAMIE MARGOLIN in Teen Vogue magazine Op-Ed
“We can draw many lessons and opportunities from the current health crisis when tackling planetary warming.” – Professor Natasha Chassagne of the University of Tasmania
Slower economic growth from coronavirus “may be good for climate.” – “There is less trade, less travel, less commerce.” – We have an “incredible responsibility” to “actually converge the solutions — at least the financial solutions — to coronavirus to the financial solutions for climate. Because what we cannot afford to do is to jump out of the frying pan of COVID and into the raging fire of climate change.” — Former UN Climate Chief and UN Paris pact architect Christiana Figueres & video link
“Don’t take this the wrong way but if you were a young, hardline environmentalist looking for the ultimate weapon against climate change, you could hardly design anything better than coronavirus. Unlike most other such diseases, it kills mostly the old who, let’s face it, are more likely to be climate sceptics. It spares the young. Most of all, it stymies the forces that have been generating greenhouse gases for decades.” – Ed Conway, economics editor of Sky News and columnist for U.K. Times
Climate activist sees “silver lining” in coronavirus: “The machine of capitalism has slowed dramatically, prompting environmental healing.” – Brooke Russell in Santa Barbara Independent
“The scientists have warned us about the coronavirus and they’ve warned us about the climate crisis, and we’ve seen the dangers of waiting too late to heed the warnings of the doctors and scientists on this virus…Fossil fuels are a pre-existing condition for COVID-19.” — Former Vice President Al Gore
“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.” – Newsweek magazine
“While COVID-19 is causing untold suffering, the international response to this unprecedented health crisis in modern times offers an opportunity to direct finances towards bolstering climate action.” – “Similarly, we will step up our efforts to catalyze green investment to relaunch economies on low-emission, climate-resilient trajectories.” – United Nation’s Green Climate Fund
“The mass shutdowns we now experience – likely necessary in a pandemic – could provide a model for imposing harsh actions to curb carbon emissions that activists consider as great or greater threats than the virus itself.” – Joel Kotkin, Presidential Fellow – Chapman University
“When this pandemic is over, it’s time to dismantle capitalism.” – “It would be foolish to maintain the status quo when so many other shocks stand ahead of us, and at a time when extreme weather events connected to climate change are happening more and more frequently.” – Vice magazine column by Nathalie Olah
“It’s a tragically teachable moment. I don’t say this in a partisan way. But the parallels [between COVID-19 and climate change] are screaming at us, both positive and negative.” – “You could just as easily replace the words climate change with COVID-19; it is truly the tale of two pandemics deferred, denied, and distorted, one with catastrophic consequences, the other with even greater risk if we don’t reverse course…The long-term parallels between this pandemic and tomorrow’s gathering storm of climate crisis are more clear.” – “If the economic devastation of the coronavirus pandemic is costly today, the cost of climate inaction will match — if not exceed — our current expenditures, which is why the next administration must act with urgency on day one.”– John Kerry, former Sec. of State
“This crisis provides a very green opportunity. We can accelerate climate progress as we rebuild society and the economy.” – “The sudden drop in carbon emissions in countries that shut down this spring initially seemed like a slight silver lining on an otherwise pitch-black cloud. On reflection, it instead reminds us just how far we have to go.” – Boston Univerity ‘Sustainability’ Professor Peter Fox-Penner in the Boston Globe
“We’ve seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic. We can’t afford any more consequences of climate denial. All of us, especially young people, have to demand better of our government at every level and vote this fall.”- Former President Barack Obama
“The fight against the virus can set an example in the fight against global warming.” … The public can be convinced “to accept even the most serious encroachments on fundamental rights…The two emergencies are in fact quite similar. Both have their roots in the world’s current economic model – that of the pursuit of infinite growth at the expense of the environment on which our survival depends – and both are deadly and disruptive. In fact, one may argue that the pandemic is part of climate change and therefore, our response to it should not be limited to containing the spread of the virus.” – German public law professor Thomas Schomerus of Leuphana University
“Climate action should be central to our response to the COVID-19 pandemic.” – Al Jazeera
“You absolutely love to see it (collapse of oil prices). This along with record low-interest rates means it’s the right time for a worker-led, mass investment in green infrastructure to save our planet.” – Green New Deal architect Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on coronavirus’ impact on the oil industry – Business Insider
Coronavirus “Revealed what governments are capable of doing.” – “With Covid-19, everything [on austerity] went out of the window. It turns out austerity was a choice. The government can spend anything [in the context of the coronavirus crisis], and they have socialised the economy.” – WHO official Michael Marmot, the WHO chair of the commission of the social determinants of health
“Coronavirus and climate change: The pandemic is a fire drill for our planet’s future.” — Prof. Adam Frank University of Rochester in NBC News OpEd
“Already, the coronavirus has achieved something that government policies and moral awakening couldn’t: it is pushing us into green living. The nature of work, commuting and shopping changed this month. If that transformation sticks, then one day we’ll have happier and more productive societies, and we’ll look back on December 2019 as the all-time peak in global carbon emissions.” – “Even in the very short term, the green lining to this pandemic is surprisingly large.” – “Governments need to make good use of the current pandemic.” – Simon Kuper – FT (Financial Times) Magazine columnist
A ‘Silver Lining’ In COVID-19 Outbreak: Economic slowdown “has caused a reduction in carbon emissions.” — PBS/CNN International host Christiane Amanpour
“The coronavirus may finally cause us to see air travel for what it is, a fuse burning in the climate’ bomb…As it happens, a lot less flying is required if we are to stabilize a non-nightmarish planetary climate for our children, our grandchildren and their children.” – “We have to start thinking now — right now, today, as you read this — about a livable, equitable future for our children, and for that future to be realized we must embrace a world that the coronavirus, perversely, is laying out for us. It is a world of less travel, less consumption…” – Christopher Ketcham in LA Times
“Climate change endangers every present and future citizen of this planet. If we truly care about the health of our communities, countries and global commons, we must find ways of powering the planet without relying on fossil fuels. It would be a tragedy to survive the coronavirus but succumb to human-caused climate disruption.” — Ben Santer, former UN IPCC lead author & atmospheric scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory – Scientific American
“The climate and environmental emergency is still ongoing. We need to tackle both the corona pandemic, this crisis, at the same time as we tackle the climate and environmental emergency because we need to be able to tackle two crises at once.” – “It is even more important that we listen to scientists, science, and to the experts. That goes for all crises, whether it’s the corona crisis or whether it’s the climate crisis, which of course is still ongoing and is not slowing down even in times like these.” – Teen school striking climate activist Greta Thunberg.
“The overlaps between the coronavirus crisis and the climate crisis are many…there is an opportunity for all of us here. As awful as the coronavirus is, it is something of a test run for the challenges of a climate crisis that continues to accelerate.” – “The similarities between the causes of and solutions to the coronavirus and the climate crisis are nothing short of eerie.” — Mark Hertsgaard (Covering Climate) & Kyle Pope, editor in chief of the Columbia Journalism Review.
“The Covid-19 crisis did not make the climate crisis disappear…If we relaunch the economy in the wrong direction, we will hit the climate crisis wall.” — Pascal Canfin, a French MP, Chair of the Environment committee of the European Parliament.
“Social Distancing? You Might Be Fighting Climate Change, Too – The ‘benefit of a reduced carbon footprint.” – “Any time you can avoid getting on a plane, getting in a car or eating animal products, that’s a substantial climate savings.” Many people trying to avoid the coronavirus are already two-thirds of the way there.” – New York Times “climate desk” reporter John Schwartz
“Corona is the cure, humans are the disease.’ – Extinction Rebellion stickers
Coronavirus a “win for the environment” – “A significant reduction of…carbon footprints.” “Where scientists and popular movements have thus far failed to convince the world to act, it seems that Mother Earth may have succeeded, with the never-before-seen COVID-19 virus…The novel coronavirus is estimated to have curbed carbon dioxide emissions in China by a quarter.” – Madhvi Ramani in The Week magazine
End quotes
#
Same solutions
Many of the measures that governments are taking to control the COVID-19 virus are very similar to many of the climate “solutions” that have been proposed by the UN, the Green New Deal and other climate organizations.
The global warming movement has literally proposed policies to control every aspect of human life.
The attempts at control include everything from your lightbulbs to your appliances to your home thermostats to your automobile choices to your family size to the size and method of building your home to your personal diet to your owning pets to your clothing choices to your vacation choices to regulating and penalizing you for your personal carbon footprint and attempting to revamp the energy sector and the entire economic system.
Many climate activists will welcome a global recession because they have been calling for “degrowth” policies and “planned recessions” to fight climate change.
Climate activists took notes as they saw how COVID-19 caused a near-total shutdown of the “evil” modern life they waged war on was essentially shut down overnight and the climate warriors wanted in on the action.
Progressive environmentalists lauded the lockdowns as having “ecological benefits” but lamented that they wanted climate activists to be in charge of shutting down society. Dr Jason Hickel, a lecturer in economic anthropology at Goldsmiths University and member of the advisory board of the Green New Deal for Europe, explained:
“When you do scale down energy use and industrial production then it does have these ecological benefits but the crucial thing to observe here is that this is happening in an unplanned, chaotic way which is hurting peoples’ lives. We would never advocate for such a thing in climate policy. What we need is a planned approach to reducing unnecessary industrial activity that has no connection to human welfare and that also disproportionately benefits already wealthy people as opposed to ordinary people.”
#
Dr. Hickel likes the “ecological benefits” of the COVID-19 lockdowns, but what galls Hickel is that he wants the lockdowns to be ‘planned’ so that he and his academic colleagues can be in charge of crafting their vision of a utopian world which he explains is “reducing unnecessary industrial activity.” The climate campaigners see a post coronavirus world defined by fear of ‘climate change’ and they are seeking to remake societies from their university offices instead of letting free people and free economies thrive.
As former President Ronald Reagan said: “The more the plans fail, the more the planners plan.”
https://twitter.com/DawnMarieSaid/status/1251934242008977410
The warmists’ past repeated calls for “global government” were also inserted into the coronavirus shutdown debate.
The goals of the climate activists have advanced given the coronavirus total shutdown of society. Climate activists know that if the U.S. government and other western nations can shut down all aspects of society to deal with a virus, it can do the same for climate change.
Greta Thunberg: Coronavirus shows action against ‘climate change’ possible
Climate activists have to be pleased to see a conservative Republican President — Donald Trump — at least temporarily support a near-complete shutdown of the economic engines of the U.S. for public safety purposes. The climate campaigners know that a precedent has been set and they will exploit future presidents and Congresses more agreeable to their climate agenda, to impose similar climate-based restrictions for alleged public safety.
The climate movement is also likely now to increase their focus on linking viruses to “climate change” and thus make fighting climate change a part of fighting deadly viruses.
The activists will then attempt to piggyback efforts like the Green New Deal as a part of future virus-fighting strategies.
Global warming promoters know that they should never let a crisis go to waste. They are pouncing on any opportunity to inject climate change into the COVID-19 issue including attempts to make sure that federal stimulus bills include going in the “right direction toward decarbonization.”
But so far, these attempts have been rebuffed due to the fact that the last thing U.S. businesses need is more punishing climate-based mandates to satisfy the Democrat Party environmental base.
Activists are also seeking to remake the automobile and transportation.
https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/1252637224413339655
Many in the climate action community essentially want the public to get used to this living under some sort of lockdown. They want at least a portion of these governmental lockdown powers to remain and be used for climate change after the coronavirus pandemic passes.
Activists want the public to get used to the travel restrictions, to get used to the quarantines, to get to use to limits in their personal freedom as lower emissions are mandated due to the “climate emergency.”
As the UK power chief warned a few years ago that due to green energy policies, “Families would have to get used to only using power when it was available.”
The climate activists and progressive Left want people to get used to living a restricted life, where your everyday actions have to be approved by the government or okayed by a bureaucratic official. Our current reality of living under a virus-induced government lockdown is the perfect template for how the climate campaigners envision a future living under a coercive government that takes the “climate emergency” seriously.
Nothing makes leftists angrier than seeing happy people whom they can't control. https://t.co/Srwh2su2x2
— Tony Heller (@Tony__Heller) April 20, 2020
Steve Milloy of JunkScience.com wrote on April 18: “The coronavirus police state is only temporary (I hope!). The climate police state would be permanent.”
This is true.
The #coronavirus police state is only temporary (I hope!).
The climate police state would be permanent.https://t.co/OWFTx82OL3
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) April 18, 2020
There are many obstacles in the way for environmental campaigners. In Europe, the carbon market collapsed and the EU was urged to put economic survival ahead any Green New Deal.
The climate skeptic Global Warming Policy Forum, declared on April 4: “As Europe’s economies are in full lockdown, industries facing total collapse are desperately calling on the EU to water down or at least delay costly climate policies. In this crisis, it is becoming evident that the Green Deal is an existential threat to Europe’s economies and the wellbeing of the general public rather than a benefit.”
#
Related Links:
Toronto Star Columnist: COVID-19 deaths are 'not where the terror lies. The true terror is mass death and that could become reality if we don’t tackle climate change' – https://t.co/q7L2SP12hV
— Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) March 22, 2020
Newsflash: you can take precautions to protect health while still protecting basic civil liberties…
Some governors haven’t learned this pic.twitter.com/NerwF2RPez
— CFACT (@CFACT) April 17, 2020
UK Guardian activists hope Coronavirus lockdown becomes climate lockdown: ‘What was once impossible (socialist, reckless) now turns out not to be, at all’ – UK Guardian editorial: “The brakes placed on economic activities of many kinds, worldwide, have led to carbon emission cuts that would previously have been unthinkable: 18% in China between February and March; between 40% and 60% over recent weeks in Europe. Habits and behaviours once regarded as sacrosanct have been turned on their heads: road traffic in the UK has fallen by 70%. Global air traffic has halved.” …
“Huge political shifts are underway, with fiscally conservative governments such as Boris Johnson’s intervening in economies to an unprecedented extent. What was once impossible (socialist, reckless) now turns out not to be, at all. Could the renewed shock of human vulnerability in the face of COVID-19 make way for an increased willingness to face other perils, climate chaos among them?” …
“But with the postponement of crucial UN biodiversity and climate conferences, it has never been more important to keep up the pressure. There is no exit strategy from our planet.”
#
Coronavirus seen as ‘test-run’ for climate change: ‘Mass shutdowns we now experience could provide a model for imposing’ a ‘climate emergency’ plan – “The mass shutdowns we now experience – likely necessary in a pandemic – could provide a model for imposing harsh actions to curb carbon emissions that activists consider as great or greater threats than the virus itself.”…
“Unless carefully controlled and monitored, the response to the current pandemic could end up leaving us with a system more akin to China’s authoritarian order, dominated by a narrow class of Mandarins and billionaires.”…
“Already some environmentalists view the policies used to battle the virus, and the unprecedented course of actions, as a “test run” for what they believe will be necessary to save humanity. As in the Middle Ages, theology will play a central role in pushing an autocratic “solution.” In their oddly pious way, some environmentalists view the pandemic, like climate change, as a kind of “comeuppance” for the evil impact of humans on Earth.”…
” Throughout history, crises – like the COVID-19 pandemic – have been ideal opportunities for expanding centralized control of life, ostensibly for our own good. We are already seeing the potential rise of a new police state and in some countries, such as France, a rising incidence of informers, conspiracy theories, and even vigilantism.”…
” A scientifically-based crisis offers an ideal terroir for the promotion of oligarchy.”
Climate activist sees ‘silver lining’ in coronavirus: ‘The machine of capitalism has slowed dramatically, prompting environmental healing’ – Brooke Russell in Santa Barbara Independent: “The tangibility of COVID-19 is overshadowing the looming existential threat of climate change, an issue that has much higher potential for complete and utter global devastation.” … “Even in the most tragic of times, however, a silver lining ultimately prevails. As roads empty and people sequester themselves, the machine of capitalism has slowed dramatically, prompting environmental healing.”
“While many Americans, as well as people across the globe, maintain a singular focus on the pandemic, the prominent threat of climate change is being overlooked.”
Gore: “The scientists have warned us about the coronavirus and they’ve warned us about the climate crisis, and we’ve seen the dangers of waiting too late to heed the warnings of the doctors and scientists on this virus,” Gore told “Real Time with Bill Maher.” Gore added: “We should not wait any longer to heed their warnings about what we’re doing to radically destabilize the earth’s climate.”
Al Gore also claimed the use of “fossil fuels are a pre-existing condition for COVID-19′ – Emissions are ‘in effect a pre-existing condition that raises the death rate.”
Host Bill Maher added: “The air in Los Angeles has not been this good since it belonged to Mexico. But people will do it [lockdowns] for the virus — they won’t do it for carbon.”
Newsweek touts ‘CALLS TO ‘FLATTEN THE CURVE’ OF CLIMATE CHANGE POST-CORONAVIRUS’ – Newsweek: “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.”
Climate Depot response: “Well if Pope Francis and Spike Lee agree on it, then it must be true.”
Flashback warning: Scientism leads us to technocracy: C.S. Lewis: ‘I dread government in the name of science. That is how tyrannies come in’ – C.S. Lewis warning: “I dread specialists in power because they are specialists speaking outside their special subjects. Let scientists tell us about sciences. But government involves questions about the good for man, and justice, and what things are worth having at what price; and on these a scientific training gives a man’s opinion no added value.”
Climate campaigners seize on coronavirus to advance global warming agenda – By Steven Milloy
Democratic Socialists of America – Coronavirus proves we need the Green New Deal
Ross McKitrick: Suddenly, plastic is looking pretty good again in age of coronavirus
Much of our reliance on plastic packaging was motivated by the need for public hygiene…
Canada’s single-use plastics are not the source of ocean contamination. Banning them will impose costs and inconvenience here while doing nothing to fix the problem. As reported by Our World in Data, only a tiny fraction (about three per cent) of the world’s plastic production is handled in such a way that it can end up as ocean waste each year. Very little of that fraction comes from high-income countries because we have effective waste-management systems. Plastic that goes into a Canadian landfill has no chance of ending up in the ocean, especially if the landfill is away from rivers and coastlines. More than 50 per cent of the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch is abandoned fishing nets and gear.
Most plastic waste entering the ocean from land — 86 per cent of it — comes via a handful of rivers in Asia. Though much of that waste is domestically-produced, as of 2017 about 10 per cent was from imported plastic waste.
Vice MAG Column: ‘When this pandemic is over, it’s time to dismantle capitalism’
German Public Law Professor: Climate Crisis ‘Requires Freedom-Limiting Measures’ – ‘Fight against the virus’ is model for climate fight – German public law professor Thomas Schomerus of Leuphana University: “The fight against the virus can set an example in the fight against global warming.” … The public can be convinced “to accept even the most serious encroachments on fundamental rights.” The only thing that is needed for the public acceptance of “stringent measures”, says Schomerus is communication made “in a transparent, comprehensible, science-based and multimedia-based manner”. If this is done, he writes, “the population will be prepared to accept even the most serious encroachments on fundamental rights.”
He writes that the concern about the future of children and grandchildren “can be just as convincing” as the fear of death by the Coronavirus.
CLAIM: ‘The coronavirus outbreak is part of the climate crisis’ – Claim: The two emergencies are in fact quite similar. Both have their roots in the world’s current economic model – that of the pursuit of infinite growth at the expense of the environment on which our survival depends – and both are deadly and disruptive. In fact, one may argue that the pandemic is part of climate change and therefore, our response to it should not be limited to containing the spread of the virus. What we thought was “normal” before the pandemic was already a crisis and so returning to it cannot be an option. …
The rapid response to COVID-19 around the world illustrates the remarkable capacity of society to put the emergency brake on “business-as-usual” simply by acting in the moment. It shows that we can take radical action if we want to.
Now we ‘can all see what a carbon-constrained economy looks like’
Jane Fonda: ‘Climate change guarantees that COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic we will see’ – Fonda: “With climate change, shorter, warmer winters, earlier springs, deforestation and other clearing of wild areas for human use guarantees that disease-baring animals and insects come in contact with people who lack resistance. This is how all the recent pandemics—AIDS, SARS, MERS, Ebola and now COVID-19 originated.
The melting of the Arctic ice sheet is releasing untold pathogens to which humans are not immune. Climate change guarantees that COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic we will see.”
Coronavirus ‘reveals radical climate idea’: ‘Opportunity’ for economic ‘degrowth’ – ‘A planned slowdown of’ the economy to fight ‘climate change’ “Degrowth” involves a purposeful contraction of the economy
Some climate-focused economists see the COVID-19 pandemic as an unwitting experiment for a radical strategy to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The concept is called “degrowth.” It involves a planned slowdown of economic sectors that emit large amounts of global carbon dioxide. Those sectors would scale down until the broader economy meets “sustainable emissions levels,” advancing long-term health and environmental goals.
Natasha Chassagne of the University of Tasmania: There are “opportunities we can take away from the coronavirus emergency.” …
“‘Degrowth’ involves a purposeful contraction of high-emitting sectors while growing other sectors that produce low or zero emissions.”
#
Flashback: Sierra Club Touts Economic ‘De-Growth’: ‘We have to de-grow our economy’ to ‘temper climate disruption, and foster a stable, equitable world economy’ – ‘WORK LESS TO LIVE MORE’
Flashback: ‘A planned economic recession’: Global warming prof. Kevin Anderson – who has ‘cut back on showering’ to save planet – asserts economic ‘de-growth’ is needed to fight climate change
Beware the Left’s ‘Degrowth’ Movement: ‘Reveals the modern left for what it is at its core, anti-growth, anti-people, anti-free enterprise & anti-prosperity’
Stephen Moore: “The degrowth fad — hopefully it is just that — also reveals the modern left movement for what it is at its core. It is anti-growth, anti-people, anti-free enterprise and anti-prosperity. The entire climate change movement is an assault against cheap and abundant energy and rising living standards. This raises the question of how we could ever rely on the left to fix our economy, help the poor and make us all more prosperous if their goal is to shrink the economy, not grow it?”
Stephen Moore: The degrowth fad — hopefully it is just that — also reveals the modern left movement for what it is at its core. It is anti-growth, anti-people, anti-free enterprise and anti-prosperity. The entire climate change movement is an assault against cheap and abundant energy and rising living standards. This raises the question of how we could ever rely on the left to fix our economy, help the poor and make us all more prosperous if their goal is to shrink the economy, not grow it?
Degrowth is defended by its proponents as “a political, economic and social movement based on ecological economics, anti-consumerism and anti-capitalism.”
These are the proponents of a radical and increasingly chic movement on the left called “degrowth.” This is the idea that economic growth and increased prosperity are the root CAUSE of massive ecological destruction and health pandemics. The agenda is to shut down industrial production and industries like fossil fuels, automobiles and airline travel that contribute to global warming. COVID-19 and the economy lockdown are seen as a kind of test run for the theory.
Al Jazeera: ‘Climate action should be central to our response to the COVID-19 pandemic’
Prof. Adam Frank University of Rochester: “It’s time to wake up. Like this pandemic, climate change is also going to push on the networks that make up our civilization. Unlike the pandemic, its effects will be long term. The international COVID-19 pandemic is many things, but its deepest impact may be fostering a recognition that this machine of civilization that we built is a whole lot more fragile than we thought. And that is why, in the long term, the coronavirus will one day be seen as a fire drill for climate change.” …
“The pandemic has awakened us from our slumber. It is letting us see the real consequences of denial. That may be its most important lesson — allowing us the insight, strength and compassion to build a resilient and robust future.”
Now is the time for global leaders to create one world government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged on Thursday. …
“This is not something that can be dealt with in one country,” he said. “There has to be a coordinated global response.” …
Gordon Brown has urged world leaders to create a temporary form of global government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
UN environment chief: ‘Nature is sending us a message’ with coronavirus & climate change
Destruction of wildlife and the climate crisis is hurting humanity, with Covid-19 a ‘clear warning shot’, say experts …
Nature is sending us a message with the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing climate crisis, according to the UN’s environment chief, Inger Andersen.
Andersen said humanity was placing too many pressures on the natural world with damaging consequences, and warned that failing to take care of the planet meant not taking care of ourselves. Leading scientists also said the Covid-19 outbreak was a “clear warning shot”, given that far more deadly diseases existed in wildlife, and that today’s civilisation was “playing with fire”. They said it was almost always human behaviour that caused diseases to spill over into humans.
To prevent further outbreaks, the experts said, both global heating and the destruction of the natural world for farming, mining and housing have to end, as both drive wildlife into contact with people.
Meteorologist Joe Bastardi: Covid-19 and climate false equivalencies
Brendan O’Neill: “There is something profoundly ugly in this. George Monbiot and other greens seem to view Covid-19 as a disaster that will have an upside: it might roll back the Enlightenment-era belief that humankind can exercise dominion over nature and remind us that actually we are at nature’s mercy. They hope this disaster will restore nature’s power over the humanized world.”
Extinction Rebellion stickers declare: ‘Corona is the cure, humans are the disease’
UN Shifts from ‘Climate Change’ to Coronavirus – But UN chief hopes virus could rebuild global economy ‘along more sustainable lines’ – U.N. FORCED TO PIVOT: During his virtual press conference, Guterres gave a nod to the Paris Agreement. He said the pandemic could create an opportunity to rebuild the global economy along more sustainable lines. But he made it clear the world must focus first on the coronavirus crisis. …
The United Nations’ main climate change initiatives have been moved online or are on hold. Several planned U.N. climate action gatherings have been canceled or delayed. The offices of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have canceled all in-person meetings and foreign travel, and are working to arrange online conferences where possible.
Most recently, the U.N. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a body based in Montreal, called off a series of regional meetings meant to roll out a new emissions trading program to begin this month. ICAO said the regional planning seminars for its carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation simply have been postponed. But no new dates have been proposed.
Greta Thunberg: Coronavirus shows action against ‘climate change’ possible – “Once we are in a crisis, we can act to do something quickly, act fast,” said Thunberg, 17, whose solo school strikes for climate action helped spark a global youth climate strike movement. “Though it must be in a different way to how we have acted in this case, we can act fast and change our habits and treat a crisis like a crisis.” …
The virus crisis “doesn’t mean we need to let go completely of activism,” she added. “We can do it online and at home. We just need to be creative and find new ways.”
Russian fashion model says if Covid-19 wipes out half of humanity, the planet will benefit – ‘The fact that half of humanity will die out is, to be honest, not so scary’ Victoria Bonya said that coronavirus is actually needed by the Earth and will be a positive thing for the planet. “Because [humanity] simply devoured the planet, we destroyed the planet. And, to be honest, for me, it’s much worse that the planet will die. And the fact that half of humanity will die out is, to be honest, not so scary.”
“Mankind as a whole has become worse than a locust which eats everything in its path and does not leave a living thing! Over the past 50 years, we have killed the planet in a way that no generation has in thousands of years. Such a shake-up, in the form of the coronavirus, should be beneficial to us,” she wrote.
Climate activists prod Democrats to leverage coronavirus crisis – Wash Times: Such declarations have alarmed free-market advocates worried that the global and national response will pave the way for more government control over the private sector as future Democratic administrations draw parallels between the coronavirus and global warming.
“The goals of the climate activists have advanced, given the coronavirus’ total shutdown of society,” said Climate Depot’s Marc Morano. “Climate activists know that if the U.S. government can shut down all aspects of society over a virus, it can and may someday under a different president take similar measures to fight an alleged climate crisis.”
He pointed to the shutdown of airline travel, restaurants and entertainment, saying that “many climate activists will welcome a global recession because they have been calling for ‘degrowth’ policies and ‘planned recessions’ to fight climate change.”
NYT: ‘Climate Change’ Has Lessons for Fighting the Coronavirus – Climate battle has familiar ‘disdain for science, neglecting future risk, lack of global leadership’ A study by University of Chicago researchers projected that, by 2100, climate change would kill roughly as many people as the number who die of cancer and infectious disease today. As with the European heat waves, the most vulnerable in society will bear the brunt. “Today’s poor bear a disproportionately high share of the global mortality risks of climate change,” the paper concluded.
Posted 2:01 PM by Admin | Tags: coal, coronavirus
Warmist Ben Santer: How COVID-19 Is like Climate Change – ‘Both are existential challenges’
Lorrie Goldstein: We Gambled On The Wrong Threat — Climate Change – “One of the key lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic is that for at least the past decade, we focused disproportionately, or rather our governments did, on one potential global threat — human-induced climate change — to the exclusion of all others.”
Watch: Michael Shellenberger on how climate change alarmists see hope in coronavirus
Watch: The Green New Deal Has Arrived – Coronavirus achieves many of the GND’s objectives
Teen Vogue Op-Ed: ‘Coronavirus Response Should Be a Model for How We Address Climate Change’
Teen activist JAMIE MARGOLIN: “If we can shut the world down to stop a virus, that also means it is possible to do the same for climate change.
Treat all emergencies like emergencies!” (Also see: Former UN Env. Director approvingly cites activist’s message: ‘If we can shut the world down to stop a virus, that also means it is possible to do the same for climate change’)
Margolin in Teen Vogue: “The way the world has been able to mobilize itself and shut down in the blink of an eye to properly respond to the coronavirus is proof that political leaders actually do have the ability to make rapid change happen if they want. So where is that rapid response for the climate crisis?…
For years, climate justice activists like myself have been calling for immediate action on our climate emergency. And for years, that action has not taken place….
Why have there not been coronavirus levels of shutting down and completely rewiring our society? Every time I meet with lawmakers and tell them that we need rapid transformation to halt climate change, they tell me “change that fast just isn’t possible.” But the COVID-19 world response has proven that rapid change and disruption of business as usual is possible! …
What would it look like when the world actually decides to take on the climate crisis? It would look like what we’re seeing right now. Media coverage of the issue 24/7. Consistent headlines about updated death tolls. Experts appearing on the news daily to update the public on the crisis. Everyone stopping everything and putting the world on pause to deal with the immediate crisis at hand. …
Pandemic response is simply trying to mitigate a disaster, while urgent climate response is not only mitigating disaster, but actively creating a better world.”
LA Times Op-Ed happy to see global economy shut down for benefit of climate: ‘We must embrace a world that the coronavirus, perversely, is laying out for us’ – Christopher Ketcham in LA Times: ‘The coronavirus may finally cause us to see air travel for what it is, a fuse burning in the climate’ bomb.
“As it happens, a lot less flying is required if we are to stabilize a non-nightmarish planetary climate for our children, our grandchildren and their children.
The spread of the novel coronavirus comes in the wake of an unvarnished report on how to ameliorate climate change that was commissioned by the United Kingdom and published in November. Called “Absolute Zero,” the report, drafted by a group of scientists from the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Nottingham, Bath and the Imperial College London, advised how Britain could reach its stated target of zero emissions by 2050.
Among their conclusions: Because at present and for the foreseeable future there is no carbon-neutral alternative for the powering of planes, all air travel in the U.K. will have to decline precipitously by 2030 — 10 years from now — and cease altogether by 2050. “For some period,” the report says, “we’ll all stop using aeroplanes.”
What’s true for Britain, of course, has to be true globally — an end to air travel as we know it if the planet is to keep within the putatively safe carbon budget that holds warming to 1.5 degrees Centigrade. And one can read that conclusion another way: Present-day rates of carbon-intensive travel and tourism are among the many time bombs that industrial society has set to destroy future generations…
We have to start thinking now — right now, today, as you read this — about a livable, equitable future for our children, and for that future to be realized we must embrace a world that the coronavirus, perversely, is laying out for us. It is a world of less travel, less consumption, one not pathogen-determined but instead created by our own collective self-restraint, humility and altruism.
If we learn from the coronavirus, generations to come will thank us.
Professor: Why coronavirus is eclipsing Greta Thunberg on climate – ‘Producing results that are arguably more important, immediate and effective’ – Greta Thunberg’s statements and actions are a constant reminder of climate change and the need for rapid mitigation and adaptation. We can identify the ‘Thunberg effect’ and the impact that this has had on the growth in carbon offsetting. Nevertheless, the Thunberg effect has had an as yet relatively small impact on climate change…
We can label this the ‘COVID-19 effect’. In contrast with the Thunberg effect, it is producing results that are arguably more important, immediate and effective.
‘There are climate lessons in the response to the virus.”
The drop in emissions could end up being just a blip that contributes to other problems, said Samantha Gross, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. One of those problems is that falling costs of oil and other fossil fuels could discourage investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy, and could encourage people to use more oil and gas.
“I actually worry about environmentalists getting too happy and worked up about the fact that emissions are going down, because this is really not the way you want to decrease emissions,” she said.
NYT: Social Distancing? You Might Be Fighting Climate Change, Too – The ‘benefit of a reduced carbon footprint’ – “Any time you can avoid getting on a plane, getting in a car or eating animal products, that’s a substantial climate savings.” Many people trying to avoid the coronavirus are already two-thirds of the way there.
NYT’s ‘climate correspondent’ features professor claiming coronavirus is ‘climate change on warp speed’ – Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at New York University, called the virus “climate change on warp speed.”
Why have we not taken climate risks to heart? Politics and psychology play a role. Change is hard when there’s a powerful industry blocking it. The fossil fuel industry has pushed climate science denial into the public consciousness.
Climate activists: Coronavirus response needs to be ‘a Global Green New Deal’ to ‘decarbonize the global economy as fast as is feasibly possible’ – Open Democracy: “Once the outbreak subsides, attention will inevitably turn to how the global economy can be rebooted. Before we rush to reinstate ‘business as usual’, we should pause to consider the impact this might have on human and environmental health…governments could forge a different path by unleashing a vast program of investment to decarbonize the global economy as fast as is feasibly possible and bring our environmental footprint within fair and sustainable limits. The effect would be to mobilize resources to transform our energy, transport, housing, and agriculture sectors, decarbonize production and consumption, and restore our natural ecosystems.”
“In 2008 we bailed out the banks – this time we should bail out the planet. This plan has a name: a Global Green New Deal. In the face of a growing environmental emergency, it’s the only game in town. We simply cannot afford a return to business a usual.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. The Rhode Island Democrat said airlines, in particular, must do more to address their carbon footprint in return for federal financial assistance…”If they want to bail out the airline industry, then the airline industry better damn well be ready to clean up its act in terms of carbon emissions offsets,” Whitehouse said. “It can be done, they can do it, and the taxpayer should make sure they’re performing it.”
…
Whitehouse said he would seek to include carbon offsets as part of any stimulus for carbon-intensive industries. Another potential ask: a “menu” of other climate actions, such as tax incentives for clean energy. “There would be a menu: We’d probably want a tax extender; we’d want a price on carbon; we’d have a long, long list — and don’t even get me started on the cruise ships,” Whitehouse said.
#
Dems use Coronavirus panic to tout passage of Green New Deal: Dem Sen Markey: ‘We should be working to pass a Green New Deal and deliver climate justice’
Greta Thunberg says climate protests should go online to reduce coronavirus risk
MAG: What would happen if the world reacted to climate change like it’s reacting to the coronavirus?
Fast Company Mag: “We’ve seen that governments can act, and people can change their behavior, in a very short amount of time,” says May Boeve, executive director of the climate advocacy group 350.org. “And that’s exactly what the climate movement has been asking governments and people to do for years in the face of a different kind of threat—the climate crisis—and we don’t see commensurate action. On the one hand, it shows that it’s possible to do this, and it’s possible for this kind of mobilization of resources to take place in a short amount of time. In that sense, that’s encouraging. But we were never in doubt of that aspect.” Instead, she says, it was a question of whether there was political will for rapid change.
Coronavirus is curbing carbon dioxide emissions: ‘Falls in economic activity will reduce greenhouse gas emissions’ – The disease is temporarily reducing carbon emissions in China and elsewhere as many factories remain shuttered and fuel consumption goes down.
“The most immediate impact of coronavirus is falls in economic activity, which will reduce greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions,” Faith Ward, chief responsible investment officer at Brunel Pension Partnership, told Al Jazeera.
Warmist: Coronavirus could be ‘turning point in global efforts to fight climate change’ – More Effective Than The Green Deal – Excerpt: “The Coronavirus has become both the biggest threat to businesses and potentially the most consequential factor in reducing emissions in the short-term. China, the first country to suffer from the Coronavirus, has already seen greenhouse gas emissions fall by 25% in recent weeks as industrial installations have shut down…
The International Energy Agency predicts that oil demand will fall at least to levels not seen since the 2009 economic crisis, as economic activity slows across the world. Air travel, the fastest-growing source of emissions, has fallen off a cliff, with Lufthansa’s recent statement that it is halting 50% of flights sparking major concern for the aviation industry…
It may be that future generations look back at Coronavirus as the turning point in global efforts to fight climate change. And they may ask, “what was the Green Deal?”.
EU official: Focus on coronavirus shows need for binding net zero climate law – Frans Timmermans, a European commission vice-president who leads on the climate emergency, said the different crises facing Europe underscored the need for a climate law in order not to lose track of reducing emissions. The long-awaited climate law unveiled on Wednesday is the centrepiece of the European Green Deal, a plan to transform Europe’s economy, promised by the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, within her first 100 days. “It will be our compass for the next 30 years and it will guide us every step as we build a sustainable new growth model,” Von der Leyen said announcing the law.
By Madhvi Ramani – The Week Magazine: Excerpts: “But where scientists and popular movements have thus far failed to convince the world to act, it seems that Mother Earth may have succeeded, with the never-before-seen COVID-19 virus…The novel coronavirus is estimated to have curbed carbon dioxide emissions in China by a quarter.”
“It’s not just air travel. People are canceling cruise trips after 3,711 passengers and crew members were quarantined aboard the Diamond Princess off the coast of Japan due to the virus. Another win for the environment, since people on a seven-day cruise produce roughly the same carbon footprint as they would during 18 days on land…”
“The current epidemic shows us that we are completely unprepared to deal with future outbreaks of diseases that will occur as a result of climate change. Not only will climate change increase the number of diseases passed from animals to humans due to changing boundaries of habitats and decreased biodiversity, but the melting ice and permafrost are releasing long dormant bacteria and viruses, like anthrax. The novel coronavirus has sent alarm bells ringing throughout the world. It’s time for us to wake up, listen to the primordial Earth goddess Gaia, and act.”
Climate activist Astrophysicist & Philosopher Martín López Corredoira on coronavirus and its impacts: “Neither Greenpeace, nor Greta Thunberg, nor any other individual or collective organization have achieved so much in favor of the health of the planet in such a short time.”
“There are also positive aspects. As said by the proverb, every cloud has a silver lining…We see a reduced production in Chinese industry, which has resulted in a huge drop in China’s pollution.”
Venice…is now deathly silent. What a respite for the Venetians! What good news for the ecologists and tourist-haters! This positively affects the reduction of CO2 emission and the whole wave the destruction associated with holiday and professional conference tourism…It is certainly not very good for the economy in general, but it is fantastic for the environment.”
#
Also See: Former UN Climate Chief Christiana Figueres: Slower economic growth from coronavirus ‘may be good for climate’ – ‘There is less trade, less travel, less commerce’
Will Coronavirus Recession Kill Green Craze That Has Infected Board Rooms In Recent Years?
Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked former UN chief Figueres: “Is there any sense that this could be self-controlling — that as we see economic growth possibly slowing down around the world, because of coronavirus — that’s actually good for the climate?”
Christiana Figueres replied: “Well, that is, ironically, of course, the other side of this — right? It may be good for climate. But I think — because there is less trade, there’s less travel, there’s less commerce.”
Weaponizing Coronavirus: Figueres also said: Expect more disease outbreaks ‘if we continue to deny, delude and delay on climate change’
Figueres also used the coronavirus as an opportunity to plug the UN’s campaign to reduce and stop meat-eating around the world. “If we continue to eat animals, we will actually be poisoning ourselves and being the genesis new diseases that we have not seen before,” Figueres explained. [See:
