New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has more than once made an important point when comparing the coronavirus pandemic to 9/11 and the profound impact it had on his state and New York City in particular. Just as the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center’s twin towers proved transformative, and ultimately helped remake the country for the better, so will COVID-19, the governor predicted. On 9/11, “New York took a horrible beating, this nation took a horrible beating. We acquired from it. We grew. We’re much better,” Governor Cuomo said at his Friday briefing with reporters. So why not rebuild society post-outbreak in a similarly mindful way? “You master that lesson and you strengthen society," he observed.
It’s a timely pronouncement. April 22 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, a protest that is now recognized as the birth date of the modern environmental movement, leading to much of this nation’s landmark environmental legislation, including the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species acts. But it’s a global phenomenon: Supporters claim its now the largest secular observance in the world with a billion people expected to be involved in Earth Day this year, albeit much of it online because of the coronavirus restrictions. When it was time to sign the Paris Climate Agreement into full force in 2016, the United Nations chose Earth Day to do it.
Now, to follow Governor Cuomo’s post-pandemic logic, the U.S. will be better prepared for the next viral outbreak. That much is obvious. At least for a time, one imagines the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will find its funding requests treated respectfully by the House and Senate budget committees. Stockpiles of protective gear will be given much closer attention at the state and federal levels. Public health research may have little trouble recruiting the best and the brightest. But this is basic preparedness stuff, equivalent to inspecting the shoes of airline passengers after the 2001 shoe bomb attempt two months after 9/11. What if we could reach further? What if we could prevent a global catastrophe that would put the current pandemic to shame?
Look around. One of the side effects of the outbreak and the accompanying unprecedented (in both scale and speed) global economic slowdown has been a noticeable reduction in pollution in many places. Satellite data has revealed a 54% drop in nitrogen dioxide emissions over Paris. The famed canals of Venice, Italy, are reportedly the clearest they’ve been in six decades. Smog in Los Angeles is practically gone. The EPA says March was L.A.’s best month for air quality in a quarter-century. That’s not an endorsement of staying at home or unemployment. It’s a reminder that human beings are the ones fouling the planet, and we’re the only ones capable of bringing things back into balance. We can reduce our carbon emissions without shutting down our economy.
The political right likes to mock climate change as unproven science. But those are the same folks who dismissed early signs of the coronavirus. Virologists had long predicted a global pandemic. And scientists have spent years warning us about climate. And it’s not speculative theory. We’re seeing the impact from rising seas and more severe weather to droughts and forest fires. How many lives could be lost if we continue on this path? The World Health Organization already estimates that it’s cost 150,000 lives a year. Unchecked, that could rise far, far higher.
At least one message ought to be broadcast this Earth Day: Don’t give up the fight. It’s wrong to loosen restrictions on pollution under any circumstance, yet the Trump administration seems intent on doing just that, all in the name of pandemic recovery. That’s ironic: React to the current crisis by feeding the next one. That’s not compassionate, that’s just another example of putting the interests of certain industries ahead of the public’s. We need a sustainable economy, and we need to fight climate change. Can’t we please listen to the experts this time around? Can we please not plant the seeds of our own destruction? As Governor Cuomo and others have noted, we can make this world a better place from this day forward. We can act rationally. We have been given a second chance. We can avert a disaster on the horizon this time around.
The Baltimore Sun editorial board — made up of Opinion Editor Tricia Bishop, Deputy Editor Andrea K. McDaniels and writer Peter Jensen — offers opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. It is separate from the newsroom.