The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating and may result in a dislocation of the world’s economy. The mammoth event can even be measured in the metrics of climate change. A recent article in Bloomberg, A Pandemic That Cleared Skies and Halted Cities Isn’t Slowing Global Warming, published on May, 7, 2020, and written by Laura Millan Lombrana and Hayley Warren, identified a study by the International Energy Agency that says that “… 2.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, about 8% of the estimated total for the year, will never be emitted into the atmosphere.” The article goes on to say, “Pick any world-shaking event from 20th century history—none has produced a bigger decrease in emissions.”
Quoting experts, the article concludes that notwithstanding the unprecedented event sweeping the planet and that we are inadvertently reducing emissions by more than modern-day humans have ever managed to do intentionally, the strategies used to contain the virus can’t remain in place for long. “Shutting down entire economies and sending millions of workers into unemployment are not sustainable solutions, especially when billions of citizens around the world aspire to the same living standards and comforts as those in developed nations.”
The article quotes Carlo Buontempo, director of Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, “In reality it is very likely that the total concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere will continue going up in the future.”
Can global warming be changed? The article closes suggesting that the efforts to slow global warming will need “… titanic, even bigger than the ones it took to bring the world to a temporary halt in the face of Covid-19. Businesses will have to keep their green promises—and make new, more ambitious plans in the middle of the worst economic crisis in decades. People shocked by disruptions to daily life and widespread unemployment will need to rethink their daily behaviors.”
