Dear Editor,
What can be learned from the coronavirus pandemic? Preparing for epidemics before they happen saves lives.
Responding to epidemics at the first signs of outbreak saves lives and reduces damage. Denying there is a problem enables the catastrophe to accelerate. Delaying response causes preventable deaths and costs uncountable fortune.
The cost of early preparation, prevention and response is substantial. The cost of early preparation, prevention and response is very low, compared to the cost of doing nothing.
Can we apply these lessons to the global climate crisis? We are suffering early signs: hurricanes are more powerful and damaging; droughts are more severe and flammable. Some people, regrettably in political leadership, deny there’s a problem. Delaying response enables the crisis to accelerate; climate change feeds itself and may soon become unstoppable. The cost of changing from our oil-based energy economy is large, but the cost of not changing will become catastrophic.
With commerce largely shut down by coronavirus, and the price of oil sinking into negative numbers, we now have a special, one-time-only opportunity to switch to non-polluting, renewable energy sources to avert the climate change catastrophe.
Bruce Joffe
Piedmont, Calif.