The world’s climate catastrophe worsens amid the pandemic
clock . We may be living inside the biggest annual carbon crash in recorded history . The quarantines, shutdowns and trade and travel stoppages prompted by the spread of the coronavirus led to a historic plunge in greenhouse gas emissions . In some places, the environmental change was palpable smog lifted from cities free of traffic congestion, rivers ran clear of the murk that long clogged their banks. But the romantic vision of nature healing itself was always an illusion. As my colleagues reported earlier this month , carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are the highest theyve been in human history, and possibly higher than in the past 3 million years. The specter of man-made climate change looms all the more ominously over a planet in the grips of a viral pandemic. A look at headlines in just the past few days paints a stark picture: The giant plumes of Saharan dust that wafted over the Atlantic and choked a whole swath of the southern United States where authorities are, as it is, struggling to cope with a surge of infections of a deadly respiratory disease was a generational event, which some scientists link to deepening, climate change-induced droughts in North Africa. By Saturday, swarms of locusts reached the environs of the Indian capital New Delhi , marking the latest advance of a vast plague, the scale of which experts havent seen in decades. Successive invasions of the desert insects are expected to hit parts of South Asia through the summer, following multiple swarms ravaging countries in East Africa . Scientists suggest the magnitude of the new swarms is a direct consequence of warming temperatures in the Indian Ocean, which created a pattern of torrential rainfall and cyclones that yielded more fertile breeding grounds for the locusts. Though much of the Indian spring harvest was collected before the locust swarms arrived, the Horn of Africa region could suffer up to $8.5 billion in lost crops and livestock production by the end of the year as a result of this locust outbreak, according to World Bank estimates. Huge swarms of locust have now reached Gurugram and covered large tracts of the region in Haryana. #LocustsAttack pic.twitter.com/ZMnbiDRY1D Nations which were already under threat of food insecurity now face a real danger of starvation, Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) said in a statement touting bipartisan legislation in the House to boost aid to African countries affected by the infestation. There are now up to 26 million people who are at risk of acute food shortages and widespread hunger. Earlier this month, record warm conditions in Siberia sparked raging wildfires in the peatlands that ring the Arctic . There have been what some scientists branded zombie blazes fires sparked the previous summer that never fully died out as winter set in and then were reignited as temperatures soared. The Siberian Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world. The Arctic is figuratively and literally on fire its warming much faster than we thought it would in response to rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and this warming is leading to a rapid meltdown and increase in wildfires, climate scientist and University of Michigan environmental school dean Jonathan Overpeck told the Associated Press . The heat and fires have terrifying consequences in the short term, too. It is believed that a monumental Arctic oil spill in Norilsk, north-central Russia, took place after melting permafrost led to a reservoir collapsing toward the end of last month, triggering a leak in the facility that reminded many of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. Then theres the Amazon rainforest, the proverbial lungs of the world: Experts fear an even greater spread of fires this year than in 2019 , with Brazilian authorities amid the pandemic less able to guard against the illegal blazes often set by loggers, miners and would-be farmers. Brazil isnt alone in its struggles with the more immediate, invisible threat of the virus. But climate change doesnt wait. You may feel, because of the pandemic, that you are living to some degree in 1918, wrote New York magazines David Wallace-Wells , referring to the flu outbreak that rattled the world a century ago. The Arctic temperatures of the past week suggest that at least part of the world is living, simultaneously, in 2098. Temperatures reached +38C within the Arctic Circle on Saturday, 17C hotter than normal for 20 June. #GlobalHeating is accelerating, and some parts of the world are heating a lot faster than others. The #RaceToZero emissions is a race for survival. Dataviz via @ScottDuncanWX pic.twitter.com/NIKeAYdiJd Optimists say the experience of the pandemic may focus policy minds more clearly on the need for more decisive, collective action on other fronts . I was so worried about the dangers of going too far, Sally Capp, lord mayor of the Australian city of Melbourne, recently told the BBC when discussing her reticence in the past over pushing too aggressive a climate platform. I have become much more resolute about my values, prioritizing humanity and protecting the environment, so they can play a larger role in driving my agenda. On Sunday, municipal elections in France showed a surge in support for the left-leaning Greens , the latest sign that climate-minded politics is coming to dominate the agenda in the Wests major cities. But experts warn that even some of the most well-intentioned governments are behind in meeting carbon-slashing goals , while commitments to climate action around the world are not being upheld in any meaningfully consistent or uniform manner. The Trump administration, of course, is the climate villain of the moment rejecting international pacts, gutting national environmental protections and regulations, and sidelining and censoring its own climate researchers and scientists. With the pandemic raging and public attention somewhat distracted away from continuing climate-destructive anti-scientist manipulations, protecting climate scientists is a more urgent task than ever, wrote American meteorologist Jeff Masters . The world-wide coronavirus lockdowns are proof that humanity can act quickly on a global scale to help pass our civilizations pop quiz. Collectively, we can do so again to help us pass our coming climate change final exam. Read more: Latin Americas coronavirus crisis is only getting worse An isolated Trump receives an eager Polish president A journalists conviction spells trouble for democracy in the Philippines The latest: Scientists are concerned about a highly mutated form of the coronavirus that threatens to be the most adept yet at slipping past the bodys immune defenses. Heres why the new BA. 2.86 coronavirus variant has caught the attention of virologists and health officials. Covid hospitalizations: The United States is experiencing a bump in coronavirus transmission for the first time since the public health emergency ended in May . It is exposing the challenges of avoiding the virus when free testing is no longer widely accessible . Covid boosters: Health officials are unveiling a new arsenal of vaccines ahead of an expected wave of covid, flu and RSV as the fall respiratory virus season begins. This includes an updated covid booster , which is likely coming in late September. Heres what to know about the new covid booster, RSV vaccines and flu shots this fall. New coronavirus variant: EG. 5, a new covid subvariant unofficially nicknamed Eris, is becoming a dominant strain in countries including the United States and Britain. Heres what to know about EG.5 . Covid deaths: Covid-19 was the fourth leading cause of death in the United States last year, and covid deaths dropped 47 percent between 2021 and 2022.