The global economic production model, with the sole purpose of making a profit, has worked overtime to the detriment of the environment, shrinking ecosystems.
Let's consider the relationship between the Novel coronavirus and climate change. The planet is facing two threats, connected, from their birth to their attempts to stop them, in many places. As in communicating vessels, the global economic production model, with its sole purpose of making a profit, has worked overtime to the detriment of the environment, shrinking ecosystems and bringing wildlife closer to man, destroying the atmosphere and leading to planet's overheating; leading to, after decades of indifference about tomorrow, in today's pandemic that is anything but accidental.
Pointless warnings.
Intellectuals, Nobel Prize-winning scientists, and even economists have been saying this for decades, but the political and economic elites ignored them as futurists and astrologers.
Nowadays, more and more scientists warn that the measures imposed to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 sooner or later will eventually prevent the pandemic. However, millions of other viruses are out there. As long as human activity continues untamed, destabilizing the climate, and invading natural habitats, where it comes in contact with unknown pathogens, the possibility of other pandemics in the future is visible.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that three in four new infectious diseases come from contact between humans and animals. The same is confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which states that the current pandemic of COVID-19, along with at least 61% of all human pathogens, comes from animal viruses.
The data so far suggest that the transmission of the new coronavirus to humans came from a wild animal infected from a bat, which was the original host. According to the WWF, the illegal wildlife trade is the second largest direct threat to biodiversity in the world after habitat destruction.
"Man interacts with nature more and more aggressively in a way that, as tragically confirmed by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, puts not only environmental balance and sustainability but also human health at immediate risk."
Notes the general director of WWF Hellas, Mr. Dimitris Karavellas, pointing out that where there is a large number of wildlife animals, and they interact with humans, the risk of transmitting known and unknown pathogenic bacteria that are housed in wild animals increases.
And the way COVID-19 is transmitted and its connection to climate change may not yet be evident. However, changes in the global climate, according to the WHO, have contributed to the spread of many diseases such as malaria or dengue fever. A report by WHO said that if governments focused on reducing environmental and social risk factors, almost a quarter of diseases could be prevented.
Counting human lives in euros.
In fact, putting human lives on statistical tables, the Commission's PESETA project has predicted that for the period 2011-2040, if no action is taken, the cost of climate change based on estimated deaths will reach 13 billion euros per year, while in the period 2071-2100 the 50 billion euros per year.
Climate change, according to estimates, is already causing losses about 2% of the world's GDP, a rate that could double by 2030 if no action is taken.
Recently, the US government announced, because of coronavirus, the strengthening of its market by 2 trillion dollars. Respectively, the European Central Bank has taken initiatives to strengthen banks. And a series of other measures if that won't be enough.
"Imagine if a small percentage of that money had been invested in previous years in research and hospital care. Today we would be more prepared, as humanity, to face the pandemic. Expenditure on research, health, and environmental health should not be seen as a waste but as an investment. In the age of globalization, the systematic research of potentially dangerous viruses that infect various species of wildlife is an urgent need.
says biologist-environmentalist Martin Gaethlich.
The Green Deal and the next day after COVID-19 pandemic.
The next day, if the resumption of the crisis-stricken economy does not start again on other terms, if it is re-based on the same productive model, returning to policies that encourage uncontrolled misuse of resources and "business as usual," we'll end up again to zero.
The re-emergence of extreme weather and environmental phenomena associated with climate destabilization, which will continue to exist, will certainly reassure decision-makers that the need to implement the Green Deal will return to the forefront. Many argue that the Green Deal could be a lever for economic recovery by offering new jobs in transportation, construction, and, of course, energy from Renewable Energy.
With the end of the pandemic, the planet will be found with much less air pollution, but due to temporary measures to curbing travel and industrial activities, something that has already been seen in related measurements but with a weak global economy.
Many argue that the next day the financial crisis will overwhelm interest in mitigating the effects of climate change and that the famous "Green Deal" will give way to a significant financial deal for humanity to recover from the impact of the catastrophic pandemic.
The end of the pandemic will find humanity with cracked lives and environmental deficits that must be counted in the impersonal numbers of economic plans. However, it is questionable whether the new Green Deal's roadmap for the sustainability of the European economy will be prioritized again when the storm will have subsided. A map was drawn up with the view that if the Earth's rising fever is not restrained, there is no going back, and extreme weather disasters will intensify. And then the daily reports of victims may be higher than the ones of COVID-19.
Many use the new economic crisis as an alibi to "break down" the European Green Agreement so that Europe remains committed to fossil fuels. It is undeniable that dealing with the recession that has already begun to sweep the world economy will require bold economic recovery packages. But this is an entirely false and therefore dangerous dilemma.
The road to Europe's economic recovery from the coronavirus' lap passes through an ambitious and strengthened European Green Agreement, which will ensure Europe's transition to a climate-neutral and socially just economy.
"Green" policies, in times of crisis, have always been the weak link.
Memories are still fresh from the dismantling of environmental legislation in the early years of the economic crisis. But we need to keep in mind the words of renowned environmentalist and filmmaker David Attenborough; "Anyone who believes that sustainable economic growth and development is possible on a finite planet is either crazy or an economist."
The cost of climate change.
Putting human lives on statistical tables, the Commission's PESETA project has predicted that for the period 2011-2040, if no action is taken, the cost of climate change based on estimated deaths will reach 13 billion euros a year (based on the value of one year of life, which is estimated at 59,000 euros), while in the period 2071-2100 50 billion euros per year.
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