Environmental Context

CO2

COVID-19 and climate change are crises that have manifested primarily due to human impacts on the environment. These impacts include deforestation and other disruptions to vital wilderness areas; these disruptions, which include wildlife trafficking and the intrusion of infrastructure into wildlife habitats, disturb natural viral reservoirs.

Human impacts on the environment have also led to an increase of heat-trapping CO2 pollution in our atmosphere, as areas like the Amazon rainforest are transformed from carbon sinks into carbon sources, accelerating the pace of climate change.

The unrestrained burning of fossil fuels, the degradation of ecosystems, and the loss of biodiversity present an acute, existential challenge. Our response to these crises must be proportional to the threats they pose to human society and the natural world.

Social Context

Regulations are necessary to safeguard public health and safety. The lack of appropriate regulations and the dismantling of existing regulations have exacerbated both the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wall Street

Our dominant social and political systems function predominantly on the assumption of endless economic growth. As we have seen from the United States government’s response to COVID-19, Wall Street and the stock market are valued far more than the well-being and safety of ordinary people. While millions have slipped into poverty with little to no assistance from our government, large banks and corporations are thriving. This culture’s desire for endless economic growth and the accumulation of ever increasing profits and wealth have led to certain sectors of the economy being prioritized over protecting and preserving our environment for future generations.

Quick and decisive political action would have mitigated the worst effects of both COVID-19 and climate change. The threats posed by pandemics and climate change were well-known decades ago. This failure to act has cost us valuable time and many thousands of lives.

Climate change and COVID-19 endanger everyone, but some are at more risk than others. Essential workers and those living with the legacy of colonialism, environmental racism, and systemic disenfranchisement have had greater risk exposure and mortality from COVID-19.

Moving Forward

People Over Profit

We must acknowledge that climate change and pandemics are existential crises that have disproportionate impacts on vulnerable communities. Our advocacy and mitigation strategies must reflect this reality.

And as Noam Chomsky reminds us in the quote below, centering and valuing the worldviews and practices of Indigenous peoples is a necessary step toward mitigating the environmental crisis.

Indigenous communities have begun to find a voice for the first time in countries with large Indigenous populations like Bolivia [and] Ecuador. That’s a tremendous step forward for the entire world. It’s a kind of incredible irony that all over the world the leading forces in trying to prevent a race to disaster are the Indigenous communities. All over the world, it’s the Indigenous communities trying to hold us back [from environmental catastrophe]: First Nations in Canada, Indigenous people in Bolivia, Aborigines in Australia, tribal people in India. It’s phenomenal all over the world that those who we call ‘primitive’ are trying to save those of us who we call ‘enlightened’ from total disaster.

Sources