Arctic is burning; the UN has reported that destruction of habitats is linked to rapid spread of diseases like COVID-19. When rebuilding the economy, it is vital we take a green recovery route.
With the entire world consumed by COVID-19 and its spiraling effects, there is one news that hasn’t caught our attention like it would have had otherwise. The Arctic is on fire. Literally. The entire Siberian region has been going through an intense heat wave as many towns experience record-breaking temperatures, which would be considered hot even in normal parts of the world.
Consider this, on June 20, Verkhoyansk, a small town on north of the Arctic Circle, recorded 38 degrees Celsius. (over 100 degrees Fahrenheit) – the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic. As David Wallace-Wells of New York Times observed, “In a world without climate change, this anomaly would be a 1-in-100,000-year event. Thanks to climate change, that year is now.”
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What exactly is happening?
In July, scientists at the European Copernicus Climate Change Service reported that the unusually warm spell in the Arctic, which has seen record temperatures, continues. During the January-May period, the average temperature in north-central Siberia was consistently 8 degrees Celsius above average. They also reported that average temperatures for June were on par with 2019’s worldwide record, and exceptionally high temperatures in Arctic Siberia. The scientists also reiterated that the Arctic “as a whole has been warming substantially faster than the rest of the world.”
This is due to a phenomenon called “Arctic amplification.” When sea ice, which is bright and reflective, melts, it turns into darker ocean and lakes; amplifying the warming trend because the water surface absorbs more heat from the Sun, leading to further rise in temperatures.
And the after-effects are terrifying. Melting snow creates dry vegetation, leading to wildfires — which have touched record levels in summer 2020. In addition to the intense heat generated, the wildfires release further smoke – adding to the greenhouse gases. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service has been monitoring a month of intense fires in the Arctic Circle that has surpassed the record fire activity seen in June 2019. In July again, the National Geographic reported that the “heat has fueled an enormous outbreak of wildfires, including fires on tundra underpinned by permafrost — normally frigid soil that is likely becoming even less frozen this year.”
This is a vicious cycle. The melting of the Arctic ice adds to rising sea levels, and leads to irregular weather patterns around the world. The unusual warm weather coupled with wildfires could also lead to faster thawing of the permafrost, releasing more CO2 and methane into the atmosphere. And the cycle worsens and gets more complicated.
Epidemics linked to Climate Change
And it doesn’t stop there. This comes just as the United Nations Environment Programme identified habitat destruction as one of the key drivers of the emergence of diseases such as Covid-19 which jump from wildlife to people. “COVID-19 is just one example of the rising trend of diseases – from Ebola to MERS to West Nile and Rift Valley fevers – caused by viruses that have jumped from animal hosts into the human population,” the report, Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission, observes. The rising trend in zoonotic diseases is driven by the degradation of our natural environment – through land degradation, wildlife exploitation, resource extraction, climate change, and other stresses.
UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) has also developed a map of the global terrestrial habitat to help businesses reduce impacts on nature. The global map reveals for the first time whether each 1 square km of land on Earth is classified as natural or modified and covers swathes of land not previously included in typical screening data. The map can help businesses to identify natural terrestrial habitat early in screening processes and could also help investors, for example by supporting portfolio-level analysis of existing operations and supply chains to understand the scale of businesses’ presence in natural or modified habitats.
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US gives $3bn COVID relief to oil firms
But unfortunately, there is some grim news coming from the United States. More than 5,600 companies in the fossil fuel industry have taken a minimum of $3bn in coronavirus aid from the US federal government, according to a report by Guardian, which adds that the $3-billion figure is probably far less than the companies actually received. On the high end, fossil fuel companies could have received up to $6.7bn and at least 475 fossil fuel companies received at least $2m.
Guardian, which analyzed recent data released by the Small Business Administration (SBA), says the businesses include oil and gas drillers and coal mine operators, as well as refiners, pipeline companies and firms that provide services to the industry. SBA released the data under pressure for further transparency, including from journalism outlets that had sued demanding the public records. The SBA did not disclose the specific amounts of loans and instead listed ranges.
Green recovery our only chance
Leading economic and political experts around the world, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Economic Forum, are calling on governments to take a green recovery route following the pandemic.
“When we develop a fever, it’s a sign. It’s a warning sign that something is wrong, and we stop and we take note,” Merritt Turetsky, director of the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder, told Washington Post. “Literally, the Arctic is on fire. It has a fever right now, and so it’s a good warning sign that we need to stop, take note and figure out what’s going on.”
And it is not just about the Arctic. As the recovery plans are designed, this time it will not only be about the economy, but also cast the die for our society and planet for decades to come. It’s vital that we invest in rebuilding the economy, infrastructure and technologies that are ready for tomorrow.
There is a chance here for us to redeem for us our past mistakes.
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