Sky News editor Ed Conway writes:
[I]f 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. Deadly enough to terrify; containable enough that aggressive quarantine measures can prevent it from spreading. The rational response for any country determined to prevent loss of life is to follow China’s lead and lock down their economy to stem its spread.
And so airlines are cancelling flights; companies are scrapping travel. Factories in China and, presumably soon in Europe, are being mothballed. The chimneys which once belched smog into the skies of Beijing and Shenzhen are smoking no more. Perhaps you saw the satellite map produced by Nasa showing that pollution across China, usually visible in dense patches blanketing the country, has almost entirely gone.
Hardcore climate activists have long railed against economic growth and in the months ahead they may have their wish granted as GDP growth from China to Europe and the US is hammered by coronavirus. …
On the one hand that spells enormous disruption and could make all our lives more expensive. Yet there is also a silver lining which need not only appeal to Extinction Rebellion. What if this is the nudge we need to embrace a new model of globalisation? …
[O]ne consequence of this disease could be that it forces us to take a long hard look at the way we run the world, and change it.
