The dramatic and rapid changes in behaviors of individuals, organizations, and systems at all scales induced by the COVID-19 pandemic affect our environment, climate, and ecosystems.
What does our reaction to the pandemic say about our ability to tackle climate change? How does social distancing impact greenhouse gas emissions? Has COVID-19 helped ease air pollution? How have landscapes and biodiversity evolved since February? Is climate change multiplying the global health threats posed by novel coronavirus? What lessons are we learning today about urgent mobilization for the greater good that can be applied to a similar challenge (climate change) that is on a longer timeline?
Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech and an author of the National Climate Assessment, reflected on the possible connection between coronavirus and climate change in a series of tweets: “The short answer is, very little,” she wrote, “but the long answer is, everything is related.”
Mainstream news media from around the world have started to cover these complex relationships, as we are witnessing them today and as they could evolve beyond the pandemic. There is a lot to learn from the crisis we are living and adapting to, so we started compiling a database of stories that can teach us lessons as we work to fight climate change and rebuild with resilience every step of the way.
We will keep adding to this list as more is being published, so bookmark this page to stay tuned! If you would like to suggest an article, please send it to sustainabilty@wustl.edu.
- May 19, 2020 – Americans See Climate as a Concern, Even Amid Coronavirus Crisis – The New York Times
- May 15, 2020 – Coronavirus pandemic threatens to undo progress on plastic pollution – NBC News
- May 12, 2020 – The Sickness in Our Food Supply – Michael Pollan
- May 11, 2010 – Your daily commute won’t ever be the same – National Geographic
- May 11, 2020 – Trump dismantles environmental protections under cover of coronavirus – The Guardian
- May 10, 2020 – As Food Supply Chain Breaks Down, Farm-To-Door CSAs Take Off – NPR
- May 8, 2020 – The coronavirus crisis demonstrates what is wrong with how the world feeds itself – New York Times
- May 3, 2020 – Reducing pandemic risk begins with ending factory farming – The Hill
- April 30, 2020 – Emissions Declines Will Set Records This Year. But It’s Not Good News. – The New York Times
- April 28, 2020 – How the Pandemic is Creating a Plastic Boom – Civil Eats
- April 28, 2020 – A Time to Save the Sick and Rescue the Planet – New York Times
- April 26, 2020 – Pandemic stands to compound St. Louis region’s risk through flood season – St. Louis post Dispatch
- April 23, 2020 – Here’s How Coronavirus Could Raise Cities Risk for Climate Disasters – New York Times
- April 22, 2020 – On Earth Day, lessons from Covid-19 pandemic offer hope – MIT New
- April 22, 2020 – The meat we eat is a pandemic risk, too – Vox
- April 21, 2020 – An Earth Day pledge for the COVID era – The Environmental Defense Fund
- April 21, 2020 – St. Louis Communities With Polluted Air Are More Vulnerable To The Coronavirus – St. Louis Public Radio
- April 20, 2020 – We have to wake up: factory farms are breeding grounds for pandemics – The Guardian
- April 20, 2020 – Reflections on the clean energy transition and coronavirus – Empower Innovation
- April 11, 2020 – Cities Close Streets to Cars, Opening Space for Social Distancing – New York Times
- April 9, 2020 – European Green Deal must be central to a resilient recovery after Covid-19
- April 8, 2020 – Amsterdam to embrace ‘doughnut’ model to mend post-coronavirus economy, The Guardian
- April 8, 2020 – Race, pollution and the Coronavirus, New York Times Climate FW
- April 8, 2020 – The Magic of Empty Streets – Social distancing gives us a rare chance to fix cities, New York Times
- April 7, 2020 – New Research Links Air Pollution to Higher Coronavirus Death Rates, New York Times
- April 7, 2020 – What Links Coronavirus and Climate Change: Lack of Preparation, Bloomberg News
- April 5, 2020 – First Person: COVID-19 is not a silver lining for the climate, says UN Environment chief – U.N. News
- April 3, 2020 – COP26 climate change summit postponed amid COVID-19 pandemic, jurist.org
- April 2, 2020 – How our responses to climate change and the coronavirus are linked, World Economic Forum
- March 30, 2020 – Greta: We must fight the climate crisis and pandemic simultaneously, New Scientist
- March 27, 2020 – Will Covid-19 have a lasting impact on the environment?, BBC
- March 27, 2020 – Opinion – What the Coronavirus Means for Climate Change, The New York Times
- March 26, 2020 – E.P.A., Citing Coronavirus, Drastically Relaxes Rules for Polluters, The New York Times
- March 23, 2020 – Coronavirus Holds Key Lessons on How to Fight Climate Change, Yale Environment 360
- March 20, 2020 – Why the COVID-19 Response Is No Model for Climate Action, The Breakthrough Institute
- March 20, 2020 – Plastic Bag Bans and the Coronavirus – How Are They Related?, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW)
- March 20, 2020 – Coronavirus, Climate Change, and the Environment – A Conversation with Director of Harvard C-CHANGE (Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment), Harvard Public Health
- March 20, 2020 – What COVID-19 teaches us about resilience, GreenBiz
- March 20, 2020 – Fake animal news abounds on social media as coronavirus upends life, National Geographic
- March 20, 2020 – ‘Nature is taking back Venice’: wildlife returns to tourist-free city, The Guardian
- March 18, 2020 – Does the COVID-19 outbreak mark the onset of a sustainable consumption transition?, Journal of Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy
- March 16, 2020 – Study: Coronavirus Lockdown Likely Saved 77,000 Lives In China Just By Reducing Pollution, Forbes
- March 13, 2020 – Social Distancing? You Might Be Fighting Climate Change, Too, The New York Times
When the outbreak finally ends, “if we can tell that story of what we just went through and help people understand that this is an accelerated version of another story we’re going through that has the same plot structure but a different timeline, that could be transformative.”
-Elizabeth Sawin, co-director of Climate Interactive.