Earth Day: Use lessons from Covid-19 to fight climate change, leaders urged

Apr 22, 2021

Climate change includes both global warming driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. 

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. (File/AFP Photo)

Francis Kagolo
Journalist @New Vision

EARTH DAY | CLIMATE | WILLIAM 

As the world marks Earth Day today, political leaders and other policymakers at all levels have been called upon to apply the lessons learned from fighting the Covid-19 pandemic to avert climate change. 

The call has been made by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and his other 11 co-members of the Earthshot Prize council in an open letter to commemorate the Earth Day.  

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally.  

Launched last year by Prince William and The Royal Foundation, the Earthshot Prize is a “new global prize for the environment, designed to incentivise change and help to repair our planet over the next ten years”. 

In their letter dubbed “Give the Earth a Shot”, Prince William and team said the Covid-19 pandemic had taught everyone “what it means to pull together in the face of a truly global crisis.”

“This Earth Day, the world is in the midst of the worst health emergency in over a century. Almost three million people have died. Lives have been put on hold, jobs lost, education halted. But humanity is rising to the challenge. 

People everywhere have worn masks, stayed at home and made sacrifices for the greater good. The availability of vaccines after just a year is both a triumph of science and a victory for collaboration.  

“There is a long way to go. None of us are safe until everybody is safe. But we have learned what it means to pull together in the face of a truly global crisis. These lessons apply not just to pandemics but to the most pressing challenge in human history: stopping the climate emergency,” the letter reads in part. 

Climate change includes both global warming driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. 

According to the World Meteorological Authority, 2020 was one of the three warmest years on record, despite a cooling La Niña event. The global average temperature was about 1.2° Celsius above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) level. 

The six years since 2015 have been the warmest on record. 2011-2020 was the warmest decade on record. 

Impacts of climate change, including heavy rain, flooding, and prolonged dry spells/droughts are/will be catastrophic to the human race.  Planting of trees is considered key in mitigating climate change, among other measures. 

“If we do not act in this decade, the damage to our planet will be irreversible, impacting not only those of us alive today but threatening the future of generations to come,” Earthshot Prize’s letter says. 

Other members of the Earthshot Prize council include Christiana Figueres, Former UN climate chief responsible for the landmark Paris Agreement on Climate Change; Dani Alves, professional footballer; Sir David Attenborough, broadcaster and natural historian; Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, environmental activist; Indra Nooyi, business executive and former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo; Naoko Yamazaki, former astronaut onboard the International Space Station; Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General World Trade Organisation; and Shakira Mebarak, singer and philanthropist. 

Comments

No Comment


(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});