What does the coronavirus have to do with climate change? As it turns out, not very much.
While some diseases (such as Zika or Lyme disease) are showing up in new regions due to the spread of their vectors (mosquitoes and ticks), COVID-19 is vectored only by humans; we’re already everywhere! But there actually are some tie-ins with the novel coronavirus and our warming atmosphere.
For starters, burning fossil fuels severely impacts air quality in local communities.
According to a recent publication in the European Heart Journal, this air pollution makes people more susceptible to respiratory illnesses and may contribute to 8.8 million deaths annually.
For example, during the SARS epidemic of the early 2000’s, patient mortality was twice as high in areas with worse air pollution as compared with those breathing cleaner air.
We probably will see similar impacts from the coronavirus in areas with greater air pollution.
Fortunately, we now have some great ways to fight the coronavirus. Availability of test kits is increasing, as are ventilators and other needed medical supplies, and our local leaders have even been encouraging us to avoid large public gatherings and practice social distancing.
In addition to this great leadership in the Pine Belt, there have been some measures taken at the federal level, including plans for stimulus checks issued to all U.S. citizens as a way to offset loss of income for workers and small businesses during the quarantines.
In the course of negotiating the federal plan for how to respond to this crisis, nine separate Congressional proposals for direct cash payments to American citizens were being considered.
It’s encouraging to see the bipartisan agreement that during a crisis, people should be trusted to take care of themselves by spending stimulus cash however they need to.
This is a simple, transparent and fair way to support Americans during times of economic change, and this plan is very similar to the one many economists are calling for in response to another global crisis: climate change.
Because of the massive amounts of greenhouse gases we are emitting, excess heat is being trapped in our oceans and atmosphere.
Avoiding the worst impacts of this warming will require us to shift from a fossil fuel-based economy to one powered by renewable energy over the next 10 years.
Experts believe this energy shift will be a major change, but not nearly as disruptive as the corona virus crisis we’re facing now.
There is now a bill in Congress that will enable this needed energy shift, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividends Act (H.R. 763). When passed, it will place a price on carbon pollution and create an economically-fair playing field for developing our renewable energy infrastructure.
The funds raised from the carbon fees would then be rebated as a monthly cash payment to all American citizens to be used as we see fit, protecting our economy while helping us to gradually shift to a clean energy grid.
In the same way that the coronavirus stimulus money will lessen the burden of quarantines for American citizens, the Carbon Dividend plan is an economic tool that will allow Americans to adjust to the necessary changes in our energy grid. And unlike complex tax offsets that can disproportionately benefit the corporate class, cash dividends are most beneficial to the working class and are both transparent and easy to track.
Right now we need our elected representatives focused on the crisis at hand, the coronavirus. But next up, we need to encourage them to finally address climate change with a similar urgency, and vote in favor of H.R. 763.
This legislation would empower individual Americans to keep our economy running, all while reducing carbon pollution and stimulating job growth in the renewable energy sector.
Economic stimulus will work against COVID-19, and it will work against climate change.
Chris Werle is a Lamar County resident who is leader of the Hattiesburg chapter of the Citizens' Climate Lobby. Send him an email today at hattiesburg@citizensclimatelobby.org.
