COVID-19: A wake up call

I remember back around the Fall of 2019 when Greta Thunberg did her now-famous speech about how she feels that her future is in jeopardy due to climate change and the most powerful people on the planet are doing nothing but aiming to make money and push for economic growth. If you go on Youtube to find this clip of her, the comment section is riddled with people laughing and being hateful towards her. This terrifies me. A lot.

Now I do wanna say that it's understandable as to why people may accuse Greta of being too young to know what she is talking about. She is only seventeen after all. But, what is 100% true about her speech is that we are in a climate emergency. There is scientific evidence to back this up and there has been for years. Now you might say "Well there is a balance! The economy is important too!" You're absolutely right. The state of the economy is so important for the good of society. But do you think that we are in a good balance right now with each year getting hotter and hotter? With polar ice caps melting further and further?

So what does this have to do with COVID-19? Well, right now nearly the entire world is in lockdown to fight against this virus. This societal threat snuck up on us and has forced us to act immediately. Climate Change is another societal threat but the big difference is that its effects are much slower. It's been an issue for years, yet people don't notice because the effects are not immediate. However, long after we're through COVID-19, we very well may feel all the effects of Climate Change at once just as we are with COVID-19. What if we were to regret acting sooner once it's too late to reverse the effects of Climate Change?

The entire has world has come together (by staying apart) to fight COVID-19 and we will win. We can absolutely do the same with Climate Change. Let's take the battle against COIVD-19 as a warm-up (no pun intended) for the battle against climate change.