#62: Lessons from Corona Crisis (PART 3)

【Global Warming】
Two months have passed since the first post in the series, Lessons from Corona Crisis. During those months, to our dismay, the confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus have tripled, and the death toll has doubled.  As each day passes by, we remind ourselves of the hope to end this inconceivable sorrow, to secure the health and life of each and every one of us.
 
To be frank, thinking about this crisis can be outright depressing. Life, health, livelihood – nearly everything gets tarnished whenever it’s tied to this virus. Nonetheless, even in the dark of a tunnel, there are times when we can spot a sliver of daylight. There are moments when we can sense a glimmer of hope.
 
If now is that moment, then that hope may be the readiness of nature to reclaim the planet we’ve so disrespectfully trashed.
 
Global warming is a dreadful result of the human trashing of our planet ever since the industrial revolution of 1850 to 1900. Our fossil fuel burning is the principle source of the greenhouse gases, which trap the planet’s surface heat as their concentration increases in the atmosphere, causing the rise in global surface temperature.
 
As the average global temperature rises, so does the risk of extreme climate events – including heatwaves and heavy rainfalls. These events trigger further damaging impacts to the oceans, lands, forests, and all life forms through conditions such as acute food shortages.
 
To be sure, every country has their own share of climate change deniers who choose to ignore science and facts. Those deniers are quick to point out the fact that global warming and ice ages have existed ever since the prehistoric times. However, what they don’t like to admit is the fact that the observed changes of global warming over the last century have been unprecedented in both rate and scale. And the fact that scientists are sounding the alarm over the human-induced warming of the planet’s surface temperature.
 
The fact of the matter is, over the last 150 years since we’ve started to record the global temperatures, all five hottest years were in the last five years. Further, 2019 wrapped up the hottest decade ever recorded globally. And the fact that the global greenhouse gas emissions have doubled in the last half a century points to the undeniable scientific reality of human-induced global warming.
 
According to the United Nations, in order to protect our planet from an urgent and potentially irreversible threat, we must limit the human-induced increase in the average global temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. To put this in context, as of 2017, human-induced warming has already reached about 1°C above pre-industrial levels. Which leaves us with only 0.5°C allowance before the impact of this warming becomes potentially irreversible and catastrophic.
 
So as to hold below this level of increase, the UN says that global emissions would have to fall by 8% every single year between now and 2030. This number is alarming, because there’s no historical precedent for the pace of change nor scale of this magnitude, let alone we must do so in every single year for each of the next ten years.
 
To put it another way, this means we must bring down our greenhouse gas emissions to nearly 40% of the current level by 2030, globally. And it’s crucial to note that these findings have been recognized by the national science bodies of major nations and are largely not disputed.
 
The good news is that as of the first quarter of 2020, global greenhouse gas emissions are on track to plunge nearly 8% this year – the largest drop ever to be recorded. As worldwide lockdowns to fight the coronavirus have triggered an unprecedented slowdown in human activity, by March, the world’s use of oil fell nearly 5%, global road transport fell 50%, and air traffic down 60%, compared to 2019. By mid-April, global energy use was 17% to 25% lower than it was in 2019, all contributing to an unprecedented and desperately-needed cut in emissions.
 
Granted, this historic decline in emissions is happening for all the wrong reason called the corona crisis. Nonetheless, we find children in New Delhi looking up at the clear blue skies for the first time in their life. We find people in Beijing enjoying a deep breath of clean fresh air for the first time in many decades. In witness to the readiness of nature to reclaim the planet we’ve trashed, it’s like a sliver of sunlight spotted in the dark tunnel – a thread of hope.
 
Let us not make this a one-off event. Let us live as a partner to nature, not its exploiter.
 
The reasonable way to sustainably reduce emissions is not through painful lockdowns, but by the global citizens coming together and respectfully cooperating as one. And that should mean the people of the so-called “developed nations” compromising to a much greater length. It's only fair because we’ve trashed our planet for far too long, and much worse in cumulative aggregate than the emerging nations. Through all those years to even today, we’ve reaped the benefits by trashing our planet.
 
By setting the right energy and climate policies in place, let us sustainably reduce emissions – together. 

Read Next: Lessons from Corona Crisis (4)【Life or Livelihood?】
Read Previous: Lessons from Corona Crisis (2)【Killer is Hero?】
 
Complete Series: Lessons from Corona Crisis (1)～(4)
[1]   [2]   [3]   [4]  
 
Read Theme: Environment