Okay, here’s a trick question: Who suffers from climate injustice and pandemics more than Black men and men of color? Answer: Black women and women of color.

On the website Zora, Princella Talley, writes an article called “COVID-19 And Climate Change Are Killing Black Women”.

Part of what she says is:

Gender and racial disparities are affecting what treatment people of color receive, and the matter of who gets the coronavirus and other deadly diseases is largely shaped by environmental and economic inequities. So, the pandemic is, in fact, part of the climate crisis.

As explained by the World Health Organization, climate change can be cited as a major contributor to the transmission of infectious diseases (and naturally, as disease spreads, this increases the need for good medical care that women of color just aren’t receiving).

Princella Talley

But David L. McCollum gives us a hope for global recovery across the board in his article on Phys.org, “Coronavirus relief funds could easily pay to stop the worst of climate change while rebooting economies”.

Since climate change is a factor in the rise of pandemics, part of the money earmarked for COVID-19 response could and should go toward mitigating climate change.

For the entire globe, $300 billion per year over five years—or $1.5 trillion cumulative—is not an outrageous sum of money. It represents just one-eighth of the $12.2 trillion governments around the world have announced for COVID-19 relief to date.

Thus, a fraction of current bailout funding could provide the extra near-term boost the world needs to get on track to meet +2 or 1.5 C (+3.6 or 2.7 F) of warming, the levels countries committed to in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

David L. McCollum

Will that happen? Time will tell.

A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: Write about something melting.

MA