Some commentators, searching for a parallel between COVID-19 and climate change, argue that the pandemic and lockdown show what we’re capable of if only we apply the same determination to the climate. This ruinous lockdown has thus provided a glimpse of what climate campaigners want our future to look like — permanently.
They point to outlier climate model projections and overheated doomsday warnings as justification. But in reality, since the Second World War we have never subjected ourselves to a global shutdown like the current one because it was never credibly warranted, certainly not in response to mainstream assessments of climate change.
In the case of COVID-19, however, the mainstream warnings were credible. The crisis was real. COVID is thus a contrast with climate, not a parallel. The real parallel is in reopening the economy — which means facing and managing downside risks while pursuing growth and prosperity. For 200 years that has been the modern world’s formula for progress.
There’s still no vaccine and no treatment for COVID-19. This means we will be building economic activity in an environment with large known benefits but also large potential costs that must be carefully monitored and mitigated. Sound familiar? It is, in miniature, the modern history of the world, in particular the story of fossil fuels.
[Interesting Read]
