Do members of the doomsday Cult of Climastrology really think this is a good argument, one that will get people to say “well, sure, let’s destroy economies around the world, lock me up at home, and leave me on the government dole”?
We Are in an Unprecedented Climate Experiment
The coronavirus pandemic has frozen the whole world in place as we try to keep ourselves and each other safe. We’re in the middle of an unintentional global experiment that has shut down entire nations and industries. That has put a spotlight on how our personal choices and global systems affect climate change and what we need to do to flatten the curve of emissions.
The coronavirus lockdowns have triggered what is expected to be the largest annual drop in carbon emissions on record: an 8 percent decline globally, amounting to 2.6 billion metric tons of carbon by the end of 2020, according to the International Energy Agency. As we stay at home—especially in developed countries like the United States, which has the highest carbon emission rate per capita—consumer demand for fossil fuels has plummeted. Renewables have eaten oil and gas’s lunch when it comes to rates of energy use. Oil futures went negative in March, after supply began to outweigh demand and available storage. Air travel fell by 96 percent between early March and mid-April (though air traffic fell by only 50 percent, because airlines continued to fly mostly empty planes). Air travel is likely to remain unpopular for the foreseeable future. In other words, quarantine has shrunk our carbon footprint significantly.
But drastic cuts that came from upending our daily lives are still not enough to curb climate change. Even with this year’s unprecedented emissions cutbacks, atmospheric carbon level and global temperatures are likely going to increase again this year. Today’s global warming is the result of past choices: greenhouse gasses stick around and heat up the planet over decades, and the atmosphere can’t create an immediate feedback loop that incorporates our recent cuts. This April was still the warmest on record. According to the United Nations, in order to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures (the target of the Paris climate accord, which the United States withdrew from last year), human beings would have to cut emission by 7.6 percent every year for the next decade.
And cult members wonder why skeptics aren’t willing to give an inch even on things we would actually agree on. Because they will want more and more, constantly moving the goal posts.
That means we need structural change on an international scale. It’s now clear that meaningful emissions reductions won’t come from personal actions alone or even unilateral change from conscientious countries. But we can use this moment to consider a new path. There is no status quo anymore: the pandemic has forced us, on individual and collective levels, to rethink work, commutes, industry, recreation, supply chains, and urban planning. As we rebuild, we have a chance to do better. Individual actions can still be a big part of creating market and political pressures to reduce emissions. But we also need policy that makes individual action easy and enforces reductions in carbon use in major industries.
In other words, the end of capitalism, pure government control of the economy and your life. They want to limit your ability to travel. Where you can go, what modes of transportation you can use. How much energy you are allowed to use at home. Which you’ll essentially be stuck in. Is this really a winning argument, saying that the current Bat Soup virus lockdown, which includes some serious authoritarian restrictions, is just a start?
