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  • Writer's pictureFutureBlueprint

Coronavirus and Climate Change

Image: The Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymus Bosch


The proof is piling up, carbon emissions seem to be reducing due to COVID-19. The sense of urgency has promoted dramatic behavioural changes all around the world, including in China - the highest emitting country of CO2. In an article this week, Carbon Brief released data to show that China’s CO2 emissions have reduced by a quarter since the epidemic began.


Could this lead to the first fall in global emissions since the 2008 financial crisis? Not only that, this unintentional experiment could act as precedent for future plans to combat our crisis. Of course, it would be naive to assume that this rapidly growing virus will single-handedly reduce the outcome of climate change. There is an argument that the results of this pandemic will deter political attention and funding, at a point where action is crucial. With the stock market crash on 9th March coined as ‘Black Monday’, during a seeming healthy economy, it may be a while before the lasting consequences can be probed.


It is however, promising to see that in a time of crisis homo sapiens can act. Our habits of consumption over the next while will be scrutinised in detail, and the cog of constant ‘production of things’ will slow. Trend forecaster Li Edelkoort is convinced current events will offer us a new beginning, as she stated in a recent interview “I think we should be very grateful for the virus because it might be the reason we survive as a species”. She went on to say her heart went out to the families targeted by the new illness, and that she “hoped they did not die in vain as the world will strive to resurrect human dignity and survival”.


It is very apocalyptic. My whole Master’s thesis looked at the apocalypse and our built environment, and how all the climate predictions and science from the last century are actually something of immemorial antiquity. In this project, I talked about how my initial interpretation was that ‘apocalypse’ means ‘the end of time’, however when dissecting the term I realised it doesn’t mean the end - it is a synonym for revelation. An extract below:


“I believe the apocalypse in Belfast will cause a new way of thinking for society and the built environment. It will force us into radically thinking and challenging the norms. It will make us renew political organisations. Climate change will force the hand of moving forward.”


Don’t even get me started on the locusts.



Read some post-outbreak statistics from China:

Coal consumption at power plants was down 36%

Operating rates for main steel products were down by more than 15%, while crude steel production was almost unchanged

Coal throughput at the largest coal port fell 29%

Coking plant utilization fell 23%

Satellite-based NO2 levels were 37% lower

Utilization of oil refining capacity was lowered by 34%

At their peak, flight cancellations were reducing global passenger aviation volumes by 10%, but the sector appears to be recovering, with global capacity down 5% on year in February as a whole.

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