COVID-19 came as a shock to our world. The virus devastated economies which pushed people further into the depths of poverty and collapsed industries, and worst of all, it resulted in countless deaths. Finding the light in this period seems impossible, however, it did bring humanity an opportunity.
We are all familiar with the climate crisis. Since the Industrial Revolution in 1760), global temperatures have risen 1.1ºC. This amplifies the severity and regularity of natural disasters globally and also results in a rise in sea levels. Oceans are becoming more acidic, and as a result the planet is losing biodiversity due to human activities every single day. Our air is becoming more and more polluted as the natural balance of gases in our atmosphere is disrupted.
So what does COVID-19 have to do with this? At the beginning of the pandemic, in many industries, production shut down. Due to the lower rate of consumption, scientists around the world became hopeful for the future of the climate crisis. The Himalayas were visible from 100 miles away in a city that used to be known for its air pollution. The smog in China’s most populated cities decreased dramatically. COVID-19 brought current generations with the realisation of where we could be if efforts to combat climate change were put in place.
This time period was an opportunity for nations to create plans to specifically move towards a greener future because enormous amounts of money were being spent in other sectors by governments. This amount of money being spent is predicted to not happen for the next 10 to 20 years. However, nations fell short. Some of the biggest governmental fossil fuel producers have been investing taxpayer money into supporting industries that particularly pollute our environment. In fact, only 3% of the $17 trillion spent by governments worldwide has gone into clean energy and sustainable recovery. Governments have failed to invest into concrete, green solutions.
Our global target was to limit global heating to 1.5ºC (set in 2015) above the pre-industrial temperatures. However, we are already falling short of this. In fact, to reach this, each person on Earth would have to halve their carbon footprint by 2030. Already, the richest 1% of the world’s population have carbon footprints 30 times higher than the level compatible with the goal.
This goal was to be addressed in the COP26. Global hopes for this was that national commitments would leave the world a viable pathway to keep any increases in temperatures under 1.5°C. Many believe this was unsuccessful as states’ promises fell short of the required targets to reach the goals set in 2015. Taking their promises alone, increases in temperatures would be limited to 1.8ºC. However, extrapolating the actual policies made, rises in temperatures would be limited to 2.7ºC. Countries failed to bring forward policies that were concrete and forward-thinking, as solely promises mean nothing without actions that would come afterwards.
As members of the UWC movement, our education on this topic certainly does not fall short. We are all taught the core values of our movement. Our mission statement is to make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. The climate crisis directly threatens our opportunity at a sustainable future. Even after saying this, it may seem impossible to make a difference, especially after talking about nations and macro effects that impact the world. However, actions on an individual level make a difference as well. If every person in UWCSEA simply turned off the water when brushing their teeth, we would save an upwards of 44,000 gallons of water every day. We may not be able to change government policies yet, but everything starts somewhere.
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