It is important for me that in what ways understanding of crisis leads to do some actions.
We all know that COVID 19 became pandemic that affected over 187 countries of the world, and thus causing high morbidity and mortality. COVID-19 pandemic has a serious impact on every thing including health, and economy. Therefore, people perceived COVID-19 more different than other global crisis, such as climate change/ global warming, and other communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Paralyzing the global economy a little more every day, the coronavirus epidemic has seen a decline in CO2 emissions in China and around the world. This will not be enough to avoid the many disasters that lie ahead with climate change, but lessons can be learned from the way governments are handling this global crisis.
We could detect a form of cynical jubilation in environmental circles in the face of the economic slowdown produced by measures trying to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Activists are quick to point out that as tragic as the number of lives taken by this disease is, it remains far below what humanity risks if we do not drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. It is clear that the figures prove them right. According to the Carbon Brief website, China has temporarily cut its CO2 emissions by a quarter, notably by shutting down many industries and restricting traffic and flights. On-site, an improvement in air quality can already be felt, with a decrease of more than a third in the level of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in the air and a drop of 60% in the number of fine particles. On a smaller scale, it would not be surprising if comparable effects could be observed in the coming times in Western countries.
In a warming world, the face of tomorrow's epidemics could be much more terrifying than that of the coronavirus.
Regards
I dont know, but the fake news, science and climate deniers do not help. Perhaps its as simple as many have learned to live in the moment, or short term, sort of like paycheck to paycheck. With improved detection and reporting, we can see more and know more about associated hazards of climate change like floods, sea level rise, weather and rainfall changes, need for irrigation, crop changes, etc. With Corona virus, it is the unseen hazard, spreading with little or no warning, especially hazardous for the old and sick, our beloved family and friends, neighbors, fellow humans across the world. In the world of internet and fast information transfer, still much is unknown about the virus. It's more the immediate threat that if not carefully managed, is more like a tseunomi.
Hello; There is an enormous literature on how people (or frogs) perceive threat. It is well worth looking into if it is unfamiliar. When conditions change abruptly everybody's antennae go up. If it is a novel change then avoidance is probably a good idea. On the other hand, when change is incremental, the alarm responses are not activated and that may continue for a dangerously long time.
COVID-19 is like the first condition. Malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, climate change and a host of others fall in the second condition.
Perhaps you remember the (probably apocryphal) story about the frog in the warming pan. The pan warmed slowly enough that the frog didn't notice until he could no longer move to escape. It sounds familiar.
We don't ever remember the alarming ones long enough to make anticipatory preparations for the eventual next one. SARS and MERS come to mind!
Anxiously, Jim Des Lauriers
The answer is simple. They are so small particles that it is not known to date how to remove them from the water. Thus, only in the water increases the content of particles that are dispersed in the water and we do not know their effects on humans, and other living plant and animal organisms. This is not the way to the future.
This is because the potential danger of corona virus is too close to individuals to ignore. This virus can affect anyone, rich or poor, people in the industrialized countries and others, without any gender discriminaions. Whereas, the effect of climate change is global, far seeing, slow impact and people perceive it may not be worse during their lifetime. It is unfortunate to ignore the effect of climate change but it is reality.
Perhaps because of the immediate and tangible effects, a high epidemic among people may require more rapid thinking than crises such as climate change.
From a personal perspective, you are not very likely to die from climate change, but there is a tangible fear that you could die this year from a viral infection. Perceived control is another factor. Whether prevention or mitigation efforts are really effective or not, it is the perception that an individual can DO something within their personal control to avoid infection. Thus, they are motivated to more immediate action.
People are more afraid of the Corona-virus (COVID-19) pandemic than the progressive climate change, including the increasingly rapid global warming process, because climate change is, however, much slower than the growing coronavirus pandemic. The effects of the development of the Koronavirus pandemic are already visible in a significant part of the world. Currently (mid-March 2020), the number of human infections is growing rapidly every day. Many people have already died of the Coronavirus. Serious economic effects are already visible, the stock market crash caused by the potential recession of the global economy. However, the global warming process is so slow that most people do not pay attention to very slow climate changes. On the other hand, drastic climate disasters occur only locally and in most countries very rarely, so most people learn about the effects of climate change from the media and not from the immediate environment and experience.
Best wishes.
Dariusz Prokopowicz
It affects very fast and kills huge in a shorter time, on the other hand, climate change is like a slow poison where people can not understand that they are dying.
But there is another twist to get rid of this outbreak people want hotter weather where the virus will die. For the first time, the global warming will give a positive result to mankind.
It has been spreading widely too fast! It is a new challenging threat globally. Risks could be fatal. God forbids!
Corona virus pandemic is perceived as a global threat because is less understand, less knowledgeable and for that more feared
There is not much studies about, but my suggestion is that the answer may be found at the difference between rapid- and slow-onset disasters. You see similar levels of empathy, solidarity, and action when rapid-onset disaster like earthquakes, tsunamis and even volcano eruption happens. Slow-onset disasters tend to trigger less action. But I insist, there is not much evidence about it.
Good luck.
Vicente
I think there are several reasons for this situation. There are many factors that affect the perception of risk. These; - late or early negative impact, - whether the outcome is definitive, - perceived severity of the negative result, - whether the level of risk is known or not, - controllability, - knowing the risk - the first time the risk is encountered.
Global warming and other similar disasters require people to be prepared for uncertain cases, whether it will occur or not. COVID 19, on the other hand, affects the whole world very quickly and this effect becomes more and more noticeable day by day.
Another important reason is the acceptance of the risk. People are familiar with global warming and so they accepted the risk. But Covid 19 is a new situation for humanity and risk has not yet been accepted.
The situation has several explanations, of course the comparison between the debut of disasters is a very promising but less scientific hypothesis, because there is a huge distance between a disaster and a biological event like a pandemic and its spreading. Another reason of the differences between the manifestations of ilnesses from different regions of the globe is binded to some general geographical, bilogical and genetic differences between people.
The problem is the difference between a welknown phenomen like wheather phenomena like the warning phenomen and a phenomen never met like the rise of a risk related to development of a unknown viral pandemic due to an unknown virus like coronavirus that is high infective and spreading with a completely less simptomatic incubation period
I agree with all comments but would like to add the fact that Covid-19 affects the whole world - it can be as bad for rich countries as for the poorest ones. In fact, before the pandemic situation, one could think that people from developed countries and with better financial status could be more prone to get infected (for having more conditions to travel and invest in tourism in different countries). Of course this is a problem of all of us - as climate change is, but not yet perceived as such, probably for affecting sooner/more seriously developing countries.
Scientists are making frantic effort to understand the COVID-19.
Because Humanity mistakenly believes in the "nowness" more than the future consequences. People are dying now, we forget to equally pay attention to the future.
The facts important to keep in mind are: them mankind encounters for first date the coronavirus in a such aggressive shape that could trigger a pandemic with tens of thousands of deceased and hundreds thousands of ill people in whole mankind. That is the most fearing thing.
Our views of liberal democracies and authoritarian societies will be changed for good by this experience.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/After_Covid-19_the_Lockdown
I would like to add a few words to my comment above. Well, climate change is progressing much more slowly than the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus epidemic causing Covid-19 disease, which appeared abruptly and was a kind of surprise to humanity. The negative, very serious and dangerous effects of the development of the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus pandemic are already known and there is no effective vaccine drug yet. The problem is so serious that many people are now afraid of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 infection and we forget about the issue of climate change. Paradoxically, the current spdek of industrial production and restrictions in vehicle communication, which is also the result of the development of the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus pandemic, has resulted in improved air quality, reduced greenhouse gas emissions in many regions of the world, and thus an unplanned effect on climate and nature has occurred throughout this crisis.
Greetings.
Dariusz Prokopowicz
Simple answer will be: Corona-virus disease is having excellent marketing...
Corona virus pandemic is a global crisis situation that require a common solution - vaccine, whereas other global crisis (such as climate change) may necessary not require a common solution depending on the community/country/region and the context. For example, the degree of response to coastal erosion due to sea level rise in one community may defer from the other, depending on their level of technological innovation and other resources; not so with the novel Covid 19; the disease has no respect for persons/communities/countries - developed or developing; rich or poor, all is now equal
It's rather like the "boiling frog syndrome". This is the urban legend describing a frog in water. If a frog is dropped into a pot of boiling water, it will jump out to save itself. But, if the frog is put into warm water, with the temperature rising slowly, it will not notice the change and slowly boil to death. The same could be said here. Both COVID and climate change are devastating and can kill us. However, the population is seeing the immediate effects of the pandemic with death around them and I affecting them personally in many cases. Climate change is harder to see (although getting easier to recognize every day), and harder to see the impact on "me". People think it won't affect them and ignore the impact on future generations because it is easier to deny than it is to do something about it.
People pay more attention on COVID-19 pandemic because, people die at once in a large number and this virus spreads more quickly. To stop the spread most of the countries are lockdown. Hence people had to stop their activities. This takes the world back.
Due to its unique nature than other viruses the coronoavirus detection and mitigation method have become so challenging. It is not only novel, the asympotoic nature of the virus attack has made physicians and health officials baffling about possible solution to the pandemic. Even after 4 months into the virus attack, we have not progressed much in terms of finding sound testing processes, effective and proven medications and proper vaccine. So long as we discover the proper steps to idenity and mitigate this novel virus successfully, the problem of COVID-19 will remain a black box.
Hello; Mr. Chakraborti is being too pessimistic. Effective measure to control the virus have been developed and are very well described in the series of articles in this link.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#trash/FMfcgxwHMsWPgpDqnGlqCvrJKlDPDdWV
The author and his group have written a masterly summary of the effective steps that some countries have taken and which of those ought to be considered by all countries. On a personal note, the behavior of the leadership in the USA is a path NOT to be recommended. Try to stay healthy, Jim Des Lauriers
The virus can kill anyone, while climate change so far has only affected directly some people, some others prefer to ignore the phenomenon. In both cases, however, it is nature that is telling us we are doing something wrong: If we don't learn, we may face disaster even death.
Hi Dr. Lauriers,
Just out: April 23, 2020
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Pandemic-Innovation?WT.tsrc=BGTW
I would strongly suggest this reference about the status. Some excerpts from this article:
"Treatments
Every week, you will be reading about new treatment ideas that are being tried out, but most of them will fail. Still, I am optimistic that some of these treatments will meaningfully reduce the disease burden. Some will be easier to deliver in rich countries than developing countries, and some will take time to scale. A number of these could be available by the summer or fall."
"Vaccines
Unfortunately, the typical development time for a vaccine against a new disease is over five years. This is broken down into: a) making the candidate vaccine; b) testing it in animals; c) safety testing in small numbers of people (this is known as phase 1); d) safety and efficacy testing in medium numbers (phase 2); e) safety and efficacy testing in large numbers (phase 3); and f) final regulatory approval and building manufacturing while registering the vaccine in every country."
"I say that it is likely to be 18 months, even though it could be as short as nine months or closer to two years."
Stay safe!
The effects of climate change are not well-visualized to the general people, but the effect of COVID-19 is well evident.
We all know that COVID 19 became pandemic that affected over 187 countries of the world, and thus causing high morbidity and mortality. COVID-19 pandemic has a serious impact on every thing including health, and economy. Therefore, people perceived COVID-19 more different than other global crisis, such as climate change/ global warming, and other communicable and non-communicable diseases.
The deaths due to Covid-19 are directly related to the novel Corona virus, however, it remains difficult to attribute single extreme weather events to climate change.
Survival first and then climate/ The climate improved a lot during lockdown phase
Climate change is one of the most important global crises. It is universal. Man has become adapted to its change. Climate change can be mitigated by reducing green house gas emissions. On the other hand, COVID-19 is an infectious disease and have effects from asymptotic, mild, moderate, severe to critical infection. Infection and mortality rate is alarming. Measures to reduce COVID-19 is costly. It also has caused a great national and economic loss.
Human nature is to show grave awareness which devastating impact exposes seriously in front of them. Covid-19 is such a dreadful pandemic which detrimental result may outcome in 2-4 week if someone is attacked by it. Within this very short elapsed of time many of us are dying throughout the world. Alternatively, the issues like climate change or global warming etc. are also serious problems, but they have long term impact on environment or human being which seems to be slow. General people can't understand that different disasters are the result of the changes of climate. Even various kinds of dreadful virus, bacteria etc. are also breakout in the wake of climate change.
As we have been facing the pandemic corona by embracing serious illness, and causes death every now and then since a long time worldwidely, however, the perception of people about COVID-19 more different than other global crisis, such as climate change.
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