URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Fall_2020_Melissa-McCarthy

A PANDEMIC IS NOT A VIABLE SOLUTION FOR CLIMATE CHANGE written by LAINE FISCHER ’23

In the first half of 2020, carbon emissions decreased globally by nearly 9 percent due to the widespread COVID-19 quarantine. However, the pandemic’s impact on climate change hardly offers a legitimate, lasting solution. Instead, the effect is more like using a single sandbag to try and stop rising sea levels — small and inconsequential. “No one I know, no matter how concerned about climate change, sees the emissions drop due to COVID-19 lockdowns as way to achieve progress,” said Associate Professor Jaime Palter of the University of Rhode Island’s (URI) Graduate School of Oceanography. Palter studies the impact of climate change on the world’s oceans, examining ocean circulation and ocean carbon uptake. Professor Palter grew worried by how the reduction in carbon emissions, in early 2020, was being referred to by politicians and pundits alike. A small number of people on social media cheered the drop as a win for the environment. Many described the global shutdown as an unprecedented opportunity to study the environment free of human interference. “Clearly, people need to commute to work, stores must reopen, and travel helps keep the economy strong,” Palter noted. “Quarantining the

population has no merit as a solution, offering only a temporary, non-sustainable dip in the otherwise rapid rise in greenhouse gases that requires a long- term plan.” The initial reduction, impressive as it might sound, likely will prove inconsequential with the year’s carbon emissions predicted to end down just a few percentage points and the decades of past emissions still in the atmosphere. “And, most importantly, the solution is not sustainable. Keeping people at home and closing the economy is unrealistic,” Palter said. “Climate scientists, like most all of us, want a climate change solution that allows people to live healthy and productive lives without decimating the economy.” URI faculty are searching for meaningful and realistic solutions. Environmental and natural resource economics Professor Corey Lang researches clean energy and carbon emission reduction strategies. He said people can take many everyday actions, quarantine or not, to limit their own carbon footprints such as eating less meat, flying less often, and choosing renewable energy sources (such as upgrading to solar energy at home). Governments can support bike lanes in cities to reduce vehicle pollution, procure public transportation powered

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