A nightmarish summer..but there's more.

It would be an understatement to say that Australia has had an upleasant 6 months. A crippling drought, bushfires, floods and then COVID-19. It feels as though we have been living in a thrilling "end of the world" saga, with a new season every couple of months. These have been just some of the headlines we have woken up to every day.

The bushfires burnt more than 12.6 hectares of land, emitted 434 million tonnes of CO2 and left more than a billion animals dead. The drought only exacerbated the conditions. Sydney alone had 81 days of poor air quality in 2019. On New Year's day Canberra had the worst air quality in the world, 26 times the level considered "hazardous" for humas. I wore a mask to work every day. There were so many days when I would look outside and all I saw was apocalyptic smog. I would keep my doors and windows closed, wondering when I would see Sydney's brilliant blue skies again. The bushfire smoke was linked to over 400 deaths in Australia. It took a while but the bushfires finally ended in early March, thanks to some record rainfall (which also landed up causing flooding in some parts). This bushfire season was one of the worst Australia has ever faced. It made us ask a lot of questions. Has this become our new normal? Are we equipped to deal with this catastrophe on a more frequent basis? Was this something that we could have foreseen? The drought made us ask similar questions. The 2006 drought was said to be a one in hundred year event, then how did we get here just ten years later?

Picture Courtesy: Matthew Abott, New York Times

We have known for years now that global warming will cause extreme weather events to become more common or more intense. Eerily, in 2008 a report commissioned by the Australian goverment predicted "Recent projections of fire weather (Lucas et al. 2007) suggest that fire seasons will start earlier, end slightly later, and generally be more intense. This effect increases over time, but should be directly observable by 2020." 

Surely with this knowledge we would have had some plans in place to address this threat. Renewable energy sources are responsible for only 24% of Australia's total electricity generation. Despite renewables rapidly becoming a low-cost solution globally. This report by Climate Works states that we can meet our goal of 1.5C heating by shifting to 79% of renewable enery by 2030 and 100% by 2050. Few can say whether current government efforts can make this a reality by 2030.

A worldwide pandemic has provided reason enough for some to find a convenient excuse to put this issue on the backburner. I'm not saying that the COVID-19 issue is not serious. It has had devastating impacts on many lives. Jobs have been lost. People have lost their loved ones. The economy has plummetted. But climate change is also a public health emergency. The timeframes are just different. While the window to act on COVID-19 is in the next few weeks and months. The window for climate change is the next few years. But both will be responsible for thousands of deaths globally unless urgent action is taken.

Many have celebrated a record drop in pollution levels across the globe since the lockdowns began. The skies are clear again, the local animal and birdlife seem to be reclaiming their land. As much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, these effects are temporary. Carbon dioxide can stay in the atmosphere for centuries. Thus the total concentration will continue to increase even if there is less production temporarily. As soon as the economy is back, the emissions will be back too. Thus we really can't afford to push the climate crisis off our minds.

I've seen the below image doing the rounds on Linkedin. Perfectly summarises my thoughts.