We’re in the thick of two great wars right now, one just in front of us and the other, by far the larger, rumbling loudly in the distance. The COVID war we’re fighting today will, in the end, kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions of people around the world. But over time it might seem a mere skirmish before the larger war with climate change, which has the potential to flood and burn the country, as we’re seeing today in the South and West, and to extinguish entire species, including our own.
The two conflicts are similar, but different in important ways. COVID produces immediate casualties and a running tally of its damage. We can see emergency rooms and hospitals overflowing, businesses shrinking, jobs lost and schools and kids struggling to adapt. We can also hear the agony of survivors and the pain of grieving families.
Climate change gives us no mounting daily death toll. It reveals itself only in the pleas of scientists and in slow-moving pictures of migrating human and animal populations, melting icecaps, record droughts, more powerful hurricanes and out-of-control wildfires.
The nation’s response to the COVID threat has, unfortunately, followed the path we’ve taken on climate. We’ve been slow and disorganized, and riddled with short-sighted politics. With COVID, that has made us a world leader in deaths per capita and a model of what not to do. On climate, it’s put us decades behind, increasing the danger that we’ll become engulfed in an unmanageable level of disruption and chaos that we have never encountered before.
It is essential, now, that we learn every possible lesson from our failures on COVID, and apply those lessons to climate, including these:
• National leadership is essential.
In every great crisis that this country has endured, and particularly with the Great Depression and World War II, we succeeded because Americans were prepared to sacrifice, and determined to prevail. And because we had national leadership that was willing to use the full power of government to do what no state or individual could.
• Listen to the scientists, not the politicians.
In a global crisis, experts matter. Narrow and partisan politics do not. When months or years are spent attacking or silencing experts – as is the case with both COVID and climate – the resulting damage, and the prospect of failure, increase exponentially.
• Do not downplay the issue.
The current national government downplayed the COVID pandemic because they weren’t inclined to listen to the advice of their own experts, and, frankly, because it wasn’t convenient for them, politically. In a national crisis, Americans need an honest accounting of the threats we face, and clear directions on what they must do.
On climate, we’ve similarly downplayed the threat by arguing, initially, over whether climate change was a hoax, then that the experts were overstating the problem. Later, as the evidence became overwhelming, minimizers argued that it wasn’t our fault and that we couldn’t afford to act. Now, we’ve simply disengaged from the world, pretending the problem doesn’t exist.
• Do not make the issue partisan.
This country, unlike any other, has made wearing masks a partisan issue. President Trump – who announced Friday that he and the first lady have tested positive for the virus – has derided his opponent for wearing a mask while holding large rallies with virtually mask-free crowds. By dividing the nation along party and regional lines, millions of Americans have been put at greater risk and tens of thousands have died needlessly.
• Put science and economics together.
Threats of this scale require holistic responses that integrate both science and the economy. Focusing on one over the other only increases divisions and delays. Scientists, economists, politicians and environmental activists – no matter how well-intended – are specialists who struggle to work outside of their own fields. To succeed, they have to be brought together to work on a larger picture, rather than encouraged to compete.
The United States represents just 4 percent of the world’s population, but we account for nearly a quarter of the world’s COVID cases. The rest of the world can protect themselves from us, with travel bans. But in the climate war, there is no such protection, and the results of our inaction travel around the world at the speed of the winds aloft.
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