Climate change: Changes that have occurred in one year of COVID-19 existence

By Omotayo Edubi

The lockdowns, travel limitations, and isolated working and learning that became mandatory for many people around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been inconvenient for some of them but they also represented a lesson we might learn regarding how well we can cope without the day by day convert.

That lesson taught us innovative ways of working and learning.

Truly, the impact of the lockdown has pushed remote activity during the second and third quarters of 2020, hence, carbon emissions fell enormously.

According to Aseel A. Takshe, Davide Contu, and Noelia Weber of the Canadian University Dubai, UAE, Jon C. Lovett of the School of Geography at the University of Leeds, and Paul Stenner Faculty of Arts and Social Science, School of Psychology and Counseling, The Open University, UK, suggests that change is afoot.

They narrated how the diverse restrictions implemented in efforts to curtail the spread of the coronavirus may have altered our perceptions of effective climate change actions.

The team has now surveyed environmental students to see how their perceptions have changed and through their statistical analysis of the results have found four discourses that emerged.

The first sits well with the notion that we ought to learn the lessons of the so-called new normal and that this could benefit us in slowing climate change.
The second is more pessimistic but suggests that we should at least endeavour to not return to pre-pandemic habits. The third discourse from the survey analysis demonstrates that many think economic recovery will have precedence over any consideration of the huge problem of climate change. Finally, the opportunities for sustainability after COVID-19 emerged.

The team suggests that, in the UEA, at least, projections for lowering carbon emissions could be achieved if the government implements a ‘green’ economic recovery in parallel with more stringent climate policies, such as abolishing any carbon-intensive investments.

They added that adaptation will, of course, be a shared responsibility between governments, communities, and individuals. There is now a need to undertake similar surveys in other nations to determine whether or not similar discourses emerge and to measure the temper of environmental students elsewhere.