How covid 19 reflects a democratic society
Answers
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Europe, most governments responded with a quick and efficient shutdown, closing economies and forcing their citizens to take on new modest lifestyles with no international travelling, eating out, or shopping. These are actions that climate activists have been advocating for years and yet no democratic government dared to constrain the liberties of their citizens to such an extent before, at least not for the sake of the climate. Why have countries been able to mobilize so quickly in a fight against the spread of COVID-19, but are lacking such a response to tackle climate issues?
There are several important characteristics that distinguish climate change from the current pandemic. First, the problem of climate change is “invisible” – the majority of the population has not yet experienced severe consequences from climate change first hand and those who have might not be able to attribute their hardships to the elusive problem of the changing climate. Although in the long term the problem is acute and severe, it does not affect human survival in the short term and remains easy to de-prioritize in favor of more urgent needs. Second, there is a significant time lag between our actions and climate response: it takes a long time before the results from climate change interventions (policies) become visible in the environment to the public. Third, the sources of climate change are diffuse and it is difficult to assign responsibility or hold particular actors accountable, unless they are obviously large CO2-emitters.