covid-19如果我们在气候失败的话，可以提出的迹象

Covid-19大流行引起了世界各地人民的生活巨大的动荡。Whether it’s through relatively minor disruptions to everyday life or the pandemic’s more devastating effects, such as the loss of a job or a loved one, COVID-19 has had a collective global impact the likes of which hasn’t been seen for close to 70 years.

While it would be easy to dismiss the pandemic as a black swan event that we can quickly bounce back from, doing so would be incredibly short-sighted when another, even bigger crisis looms over the horizon. Despite all the horrific effects of COVID-19, perhaps the most terrifying thing about it is the fact that when compared to the potential impacts of climate change, it virtually pales into insignificance.

Covid-19造成的大部分伤害可能会对我们将在气候变化中应对挑战的挑战，如果我们继续我们目前的轨迹，我们将面临着挑战。

Perhaps the most challenging part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been the lockdown restrictions that have confined millions of people to their homes. However, if we fail to keep temperatures well below the threshold of 2°C above pre-industrial levels, being confined to our homes will become a far more regular occurrence.

许多澳大利亚人在被迫待在室内以避免窒息烟雾来自黑夏季丛林大火的不利健康影响时，许多澳大利亚人经历过这个前Covid-19。在夏季，温暖的气候也将迫使美国在室内，在未来三十年内预计每次澳大利亚资本的极端热日（温度超过35°高于35°C的天数）。

Sign of things to come

极端热量和空气质量差的效果越来越大，对许多人来说都会对许多人产生重大的健康影响，并且类似于Covid-19这些对老年人和具有预先存在的医疗条件的人最严重。In the Australian Government’s most recent State of the Environment report, the number of heat-related deaths is projected to more than double across most Australian capital cities between 2020 and 2050, while the smoke that blanketed much of south-east Australia during the past summer’s bushfires was linked to more than 400 deaths and 3,000 hospitalisations.

The other considerable impact of COVID-19 is the damage the pandemic has done to the global economy. While the full extent of the economic damage caused by the pandemic won’t be known for several years, it has been estimated that the cost to Australian economy will be at least $170 billion between now and 2025. While this is an enormous sum, it is dwarfed by the economic impact that climate change could have on Australia over the next 30 years.

Estimates by the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute have put the total cost of climate change to the Australian economy at a staggering $2.7 trillion between now and 2050. This is largely due to the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, infrastructure damage, agricultural and labour productivity loss and losses in biodiversity and human health caused by climate change.

A will for climate action

While many similarities can be drawn between the impact of the pandemic and climate change, there is a significant difference when it comes to the response to the two issues.

When it comes to COVID-19, governments around the world have taken swift and decisive action to protect people’s lives and livelihoods. In many cases, this has involved governments casting aside previously unshakeable ideological positions to spend billions of dollars on income support and economic stimulus. Australia is no exception, with the federal government embarking on the biggest spending program in history to ease the impact of the pandemic. In the process, it set aside its relentless pursuit of a budget surplus that has underpinned its economic policies for the past 25 years.

res的ponse to climate change could barely be more different. International efforts to confront the looming crisis have been bogged down by bickering and bureaucracy, which has resulted in international agreements taking years to be ratified and governments frequently missing their targets.

In Australia, climate change policy has been a fraught issue for both sides of politics, causing the downfall of multiple prime ministers. This has left the country without any form of meaningful emissions reduction policy, meaning we are now lagging well behind our climate targets and at risk of becoming an international pariah.

清洁能量治愈

虽然从Covid-19大流行完全恢复，但在发现疫苗之前，我们已经有一种治疗气候变化。可再生能源是世界上减少气候变化的影响的最快和最经济的方式。值得庆幸的是，越来越多的政府已经认识到这一点，并将可再生能源置于他们的Covid-19恢复计划的最前沿。

With the October Federal Budget just around the corner, Australia has an enormous opportunity to follow suit by responding to both the pandemic and the climate crisis at the same time.

By delivering a budget that makes it clear that Australia is ready to embrace the transition to a clean energy future, the federal government will create thousands of new jobs, inject billions of dollars of investment into the Australian economy and make significant strides towards meeting our international climate change commitments.

在过去的六个月里，政府已经表明它不仅仅能处理全球紧急情况。现在是时候再次上升，以防止我们面临比我们刚刚经历的更具毁灭性的危机。