ideas

Politicians blew off Gen Z’s climate goals. The coronavirus shows we can act fast.

People will act on an emergency — when they understand that it threatens them.

People will act on an emergency — when they understand that it threatens them.

Well, the coronavirus pandemic has blown their cover. It has exposed how government leaders, and the American public, actually can make immediate, dramatic behavioral changes — even when those changes have serious consequences for the economy and our quality of life.
According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the coronavirus fatality rate is as high as 11 percent among people between the ages of 65 and 84, but 0.1 percent for those between the ages of 20 and 44.
When it comes to the climate crisis, most of the statistics are flipped: Young people will suffer the most. A United Nations study estimates that countries have roughly 10 years to take “unprecedented” actions to cut carbon emissions, before it’s too late.