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What does the response to COVID-19 tell us about our ability to cope with climate change? What does the response to COVID-19 tell us about our ability to cope with climate change?
Our current systems are ill equipped to respond to climate change and must be altered completely Our current systems are ill equipped to respond to climate change and must be altered completely
Mankind will never be able to defeat climate change Mankind will never be able to defeat climate change
We, as a society, are resilient and will be able to apply the lessons COVID-19 has taught us to tackling the climate change crisis We, as a society, are resilient and will be able to apply the lessons COVID-19 has taught us to tackling the climate change crisis
Our governments were not prepared for a pandemic, so we can't expect them to be prepared for a climate change catastrophe. Our governments were not prepared for a pandemic, so we can't expect them to be prepared for a climate change catastrophe.
Our society prioritizes profit over human lives due to capitalism. Our society prioritizes profit over human lives due to capitalism.
Fake news, ignorance, and bipartisan politics will make defeating COVID-19 and climate change impossible. Fake news, ignorance, and bipartisan politics will make defeating COVID-19 and climate change impossible.
People are beginning to notice how global crises compound social inequality and are now more likely to become involved in local government and climate change activism. People are beginning to notice how global crises compound social inequality and are now more likely to become involved in local government and climate change activism.
People now have a better understanding of the concept of exponential growth. People now have a better understanding of the concept of exponential growth.
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What does the response to COVID-19 tell us about our ability to cope with climate change?
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Our current systems are ill equipped to respond to climate change and must be altered completely

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Our society prioritizes profit over human lives due to capitalism.

As a result of capitalism, our governments are incentivized to prioritize profit and protecting the economy over taking measures to save human lives. The pandemic has forced many factories and corporations to halt production, resulting in a drop in harmful carbon emissions. This, however, is unlikely to continue past the end of the pandemic.
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The Argument

The coronavirus pandemic has seen a historic drop in harmful carbon emissions due to factory closures and a steep decline in car traffic and commercial air travel. Greenhouse gas emissions dropped 25% in China as factories and industrial plants began to close as the country went into lockdown. The U.N has estimated that, in order to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, our global emissions need to drop by 7.6%. It’s only estimated that our global emissions will drop by 4% in 2020 due to COVID-19. However, if we continued on the path we’re on now, we could see the 7.6% drop that we need. [1]However, in a capitalist system, instead of prioritizing public health and safety, we tend to focus on economic prosperity and profit. Corporations and large companies are incentivized by capitalism to deny the existence of climate change, as adopting more eco-friendly technologies or business practices reduce profits. Controversy has arisen in the United States and in England, where the conservative governments initially hesitated to close business and tell citizens to stay home because doing so would hurt the economy. Instead, they suggested we allow life to continue on as normal, build herd immunity, and view the deaths of the elderly and immunocompromised as “sacrifices.” Many people no longer believe that their governments care about their health or safety. If politicians now are willing to sacrifice the lives of citizens they're meant to represent and protect, it's likely that they'll act similarly when the catastrophic impacts of climate change become more evident.

Counter arguments

Premises

[P1] The COVID-19 pandemic has forced corporations and factories to pause their operations, which has resulted in a drop in CO2 emissions and proof that big businesses are responsible for the acceleration of climate change. [P2] Because we live in a capitalist society, governments and businesses are incentivized to downplay the dangers of the virus so they can begin earning a profit again. This will likely continue when the climate change crisis begins to worsen.

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/14/834295861/carbon-emissions-are-falling-but-still-not-enough-scientists-say
This page was last edited on Monday, 18 May 2020 at 21:49 UTC

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