Coronavirus Could Sway Climate Change Doubters
The pandemic has proved just how vulnerable we are to the forces of nature. That could open even the most impervious minds to scientific reality.
Room for change?
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
If the coronavirus pandemic has made one thing clear, it's that knowledge, preparation and science matter. Political spin can win elections and keep millions of people misinformed, but it doesn't sway the forces of nature, of which infectious disease is one. “Reality must take precedence over public relations,” as the American physicist Richard Feynman put it in the aftermath of the Challenger disaster, “for nature cannot be fooled.”
Post-pandemic, one might hope that individuals and government leaders will take note and put old-fashioned preparation back on the list of our priorities. Aside from taking steps to avoid future pandemics — and there will be more — the most obvious major risk to prepare for is global warming, over which nations have dithered for decades.