Has Covid-19 Put the Brakes on the Climate Revolution?

 by Ben Davis

(image: Karsten Wurth)

Has COVID-19 put the brakes on the climate revolution ? Huge progress has been made in regard to climate change awareness in recent years as well as a willingness of governments around the world to enact change against the crisis. However, has coronavirus set back climate progress so much that by the time we’ve fixed COVID-19, the damage done to the environment will be irreversible? 

It seemed like just when progress was being made in the way of reducing single use plastics, PPE came along and obliterated it. I can almost guarantee that every household part of the PGS community has purchased a multi pack of disposable masks in the last sixth months. Now say that everyone purchased a 50 pack of masks, that’s almost 50,000 masks just in our community alone. That’s not even taking staff into account. 

Now I’m not saying that purchasing those masks was wrong, of course not, protecting your health during the pandemic is of paramount importance and through the spring, there was no apparent alternative to a disposable mask. However, just try to consider the environmental impacts of PPE. Now think about more general single use plastic waste that has re-emerged as a result of the pandemic. For example, in the Sixth Form Cafe, in order to maintain hygiene standards, cutlery is now plastic AND packaged inside plastic. In a normal world, the packaging would be unnecessary, yet, in our COVID ridden world, things like this are a common sight. All around the world, our plastic usage is skyrocketing and, if not curated soon, what was already a plastic waste crisis will become virtually unmanageable. 

Finally, think of the government. The NHS is under unprecedented pressure, the economy is being plunged into recession as nearly every industry is reeling from the crisis, mental health of most people is degrading and Boris is still trying to fight his way through EU trade talks, now with the addition of Joe Biden to shuffle things up. Climate Change is hardly top priority. 

On the flip side, since writing the previous paragraph a few days ago, Boris Johnson has announced a 10-part climate plan to help the UK reach its goal to become carbon neutral by 2050. Whilst this is excellent, I think that the proposed investments to support the plan are too small and that Boris is simply setting big targets without much substance to reach them. 

To conclude, whilst some action is being put forward by the government to deal with the crisis - I think that it’s more, big, stand out targets without adequate investment. Furthermore, whilst the UK might be proposing some climate action, without the world’s abrupt support then the climate crisis will be ongoing. Combined with the rate at which single use plastic are being churned out for use as PPE, I think that the planet needs to quickly take a step back and assess the impacts that 2020 will have in 20 years time when the human race will be scrambling to remedy the extra challenges created this year.