Things have changed drastically for us all in the past months. We have had our lives turned upside down. This has taught us a lot about our ability to adapt as a global community. We were able to make quick and efficient changes to mitigate the damage caused by the virus. We closed schools, shut down businesses, and began distancing ourselves from others. This has been challenging and stressful for many of us, but we have been able to do it. We were able to make significant changes not just to our personal lifestyles, but our society as a whole. We were faced with an emergency and we did everything we could to minimize the damage.
So how come we, both as a society and as individuals, have not reacted to climate change in the same way? For so long, people have protested about how difficult it is to make lifestyle changes, how you can’t possibly stop doing things the way you always have. This virus, these weeks of quarantine, have proven the exact opposite. We are incredibly capable of adapting, changing our routines and lifestyles to slow the spread of a virus. If you can stock up on toilet paper, move to online classes and practice social distancing, why can’t you reduce your single-use plastic consumption, carpool to work or take a shorter shower? It isn’t just on a personal level, either.
Our governments have shown that they can pass legislation, provide relief, and spend billions of dollars on emergencies. They can even put the safety of their citizens above the economy. This is the type of action that we need to see in response to climate change because, if we don’t, the effects of climate change will be much worse than coronavirus ever could be.
So, as we move through this crazy time and begin to recover, we need to remember how effective it is when our community and government come together to create change.
— Aaron Seaver
Anchorage
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