Kaze, April 2020
Climate change issues and the COVID-19 pandemic share the same root
Konoe FUJIMURA
Amid growing fear of the COVID-19 all over the world, we see various
questionable conducts to procure surgical masks and rubbing alcohol. Under thischaotic situation, I cannot but admire the message of an Italian schoolmasterdirected to his students. “Let us use the rational thought that allowed us tocreate said medicine so that we may preserve the most precious asset wepossess, our social fabric, our humanity. “The corona pandemic seems to be a warning that nature is sending
toward humans over the excessively sophisticated modern ways of living. As yousee, there are a few similarities between the COVID-19 catastrophe and theclimate change issues.
Firstly, both were caused by globalization and land development as theresult of excessive human desire. Globalization started in the 1990s enabled us
to travel swiftly to every corner of the world, and at the same time, the tradestarted to expand rapidly. According to IATA, the world airline travelers in 2017
exceeded 4 billion which is a four-fold increase in 30 years.
As the CO2 level in the atmosphere increased due to increased humanactivities, the climate change effects because a major issue for the international
community especially after the Earth Summit in 1992.
As regards infectious diseases, new diseases appeared in the late 1970s
when extensive land development started in tropical forests and other
undeveloped areas of the world. Those new infectious diseases quickly spreadworldwide because the speed and volume of transportation tremendouslyincreased.
Thus, globally increased transportation consumes massive amounts ofenergy and emitted a large amount of CO2. Moreover, excessive landdevelopment reduced the forest area, namely carbon sink, and at the same time,increased the possible expansion of unknown viruses inhabiting the undevelopedareas. It is also expected that the methane, as well as viruses confined in thepermafrost land, will be discharged as global warming increases.
Continued global population increase and endless human desire brought
about the repeated climate disasters and the corona pandemic. Thesephenomena could be a sign that we have overstepped the limit of growth on thisplanet.
Secondly, the damages of both climate change and infectious diseases
will become bigger and more serious especially for the poor. Climate disasters
threaten the lives of people in poorer countries, and more than 3 billion
populations do not have an access to clean water to wash off viruses.
The third point of similarity is that, in the face of climate risk or thecorona pandemic, the current administration tends to put priority on theeconomy rather than our life. As we have pointed out, our government has taken
short-term growth-oriented economic policies and neglected to cope seriouslywith climate risks.
The same attitude is observed in dealing with the corona pandemic.
Priority should be put on establishing a sound system of virus prevention,
testing, and care provision. However, they talk about immediate measures toboost the economy.
The current policy discussion seems to focus on how to expand
consumption to stem stock price decline. For that purpose, they decided to
distribute cash equally to all people, and are even discussing consumption tax
cuts. Desirably, while discussing these immediate measures, the government
should simultaneously deliberate a long-sighted policy to reform the current
social systems and build up a really sustainable society.
The last point I would like to raise is that humans are potentially egoistic.
We can empathetically consider issues of ourselves and our own family members
and tend to put public issues second. It is in a sense quite natural to thinkourselves first, but if we all forget about the simple fact that each of us is acomponent of the society, humans as a whole will not survive.
The Italian schoolmaster I mentioned earlier also said "One of thegreatest risks in such events, ….., is the poisoning of social life and humanrelationships, along with the barbarism of civilian life. “The repeated climate disasters (scorching summer heat, mega typhoons,
torrential rainfalls) and the sudden eruption of infective illnesses. They will
become more serious in the future if we endlessly expand our selfish desires. It
is time we recognize the finite nature of the earth and make a big turn to build asafe and spiritually rich society. Building on the current experience of climate andpandemic issues, each of us should learn to develop a new value emphasizing
sustainability and lives, casting off old values seeking after only economic
development.