What the Coronavirus Means for Climate Change

Something strange is happening. Not just the illness and death sweeping the planet. Not just the closing of borders and bars and schools, the hoarding of wipes and sanitizer, the orders — unimaginable to most Americans weeks ago — to “shelter in place.” Something else is afoot. In China and Italy, the air is now strikingly clean. Venice’s Grand Canal, normally fouled by boat traffic, is running clear. In Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta, the fog of pollution has lifted. Even global carbon emissions have fallen.

Coronavirus has led to an astonishing shutdown of economic activity and a drastic reduction in the use of fossil fuels. In China, measures to contain the virus in February alone caused a drop in carbon emissions of an estimated 25 percent. The Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air estimates that this is equivalent to 200 million tons of carbon dioxide — more than half the annual emissions of Britain. In the short term, response to the pandemic seems to be having a positive effect on emissions. But in the longer term, will the virus help or harm the climate?

Read the story from The New York Times by Meehan Crist - “What the Coronavirus Means for Climate Change.”

As Trump melted into the background at Davos, one big new climate idea stood out

London: Something strange happened this week: for the first time in a long time, Donald Trump wasn't the main attraction at a gathering of world leaders. The circus had lost its ringmaster.

President Donald Trump tells the World Economic
Forum in Davos that 'we must reject the perennial
prophets of doom'. Instead of focusing on climate
change, Trump opted to use the global stage
 to highlight the US economy's strength.

It wasn't from lack of trying. The US President blew into the World Economic Forum at Davos and quickly sprayed environmental activists like Greta Thunberg as "prophets of doom" and made the outlandish claim that America was enjoying an economic boom "likes of which the world has never seen". He threw a cluster of attention-seeking bombs but the spotlight just wouldn't stick.

Truth is the master showman's attention was elsewhere. He may have been in Switzerland but the Eurosceptic's eyes were focused on his impeachment trial in Washington and the rapidly approaching November election. Any new major international confrontations would have to wait.

It meant the adults in the room could get on with the job, free from the fallout of any Trump-shaped sideshow. The doom and fear that once dogged Davos gave way to intelligent debate and even some rare optimism about the economy following years of stagnant growth and damaging trade spats.

Read the story from The Age by Bevan Shields - “As Trump melted into the background at Davos, one big new climate idea stood out.”

Climate change is driving dangerous and unpredictable weather

A large tree toppled over in the inner
southern suburb of Springfield in Adelaide.

Something strange is going on with the weather. It might be spring, but that hasn't stopped snow falling in the ACT. Or, wet weather forcing the territory's major flower festival to close for the second day running. In Victoria, farms that were dying  of thirst only months earlier have had dams fill too quickly – flooding parts of the state.

In South Australia we're dealing with a storm that has been described as "cyclonic", "super" and a one-in-50-year event.

I live in a sleepy Adelaide suburb, the sort of place where droughts are front of mind, not flooding rains. My house is near a creek that is dry for most of the year. I have lived beside it for almost 20 years with little concern, but a fortnight ago the State Emergency Service issued what would become the first of many warnings.

I arrived home in time to see the creek burst its banks, sending a torrent of muddy water down our street and another a block away. Neighbours at the top end of the street were flooded almost immediately. I spoke to one woman who looked up from the TV to realise a tide of muddy water was coming in under the door and across her carpet.

Read Mary Heath’s story in the Melbourne Age - “Climate change is driving dangerous and unpredictable weather.”