The sometimes deadly illness pitted against the world-ending reality

Around the country, schools and businesses are closing to combat the growing spread of the current coronavirus, COVID-19. Even in Fargo, many stores are sold out of necessities, like toilet paper, as people stock up in preparation for the illness reaching North Dakota.

It’s true, COVID-19 will likely pose a threat to those in all part of the U.S. according to scientists and experts on the virus; however, why is it that the same people who are nailing their windows shut and spreading fear about this coronavirus are often those same people who insist climate change is not a real danger?

Far more than an illness, with a 4.7 percent rate of being severe, according to the CDC, scientists have promised climate change will prove fatal to all of humankind if drastic changes are not made immediately. Yet, people are far more keen to go buy out all the hand sanitizer from their Hornbacher’s to fight a virus (hand sanitizer is only effective on some viruses) than they are to admit to a much more dangerous and probably threat: climate change.

The effects of COVID-19 have been staggering, but the fear surrounding the virus seems far more dangerous. The markets have only just started to pick up after a few weeks of downturn. The government is having to implement large breaks to workers, as the likelihood that individuals in any line of work that includes face-to-face interaction may soon be without a stable income.

People are waiting in ridiculous lines to stock up as if the apocalypse is coming. This may come as a surprise to people, but COVID-19 doesn’t affect the safety of tap water or force you to need to expel your bowels fifteen times in a day, so everyone can cool it with buying out all the water and toilet paper they can get their hands on. 

Schools in areas that have had confirmed cases of COVID-19 are closing to stop the spread of the disease, including Harvard University and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) changing to online-only classes after their spring break. Even NDSU is sending out frequent emails to keep NDSU students updated, and the likelihood that school will get canceled for us goes up every day. 

It’s true, COVID-19 will likely pose a threat to those in all part of the U.S. according to scientists and experts on the virus; however, why is it that the same people who are nailing their windows shut and spreading fear about this coronavirus are often those same people who insist climate change is not a real danger?

All the preparation, all of the committees being formed and task forces coming together seem to be garnering a lot of support in the media. After all, organizations like the CDC, which have some of the top experts in the spread of the disease, say COVID-19 is serious. So clearly, we should listen to the experts.

Yet, when scientific experts in the field of climate change all insist that humans are transforming our Earth in a way that cannot be undone, the message falls on deaf ears.

For years, scientists have been trying to vocalize the realities of climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.”

NASA has information available on its website that discusses how the warmest five years in the record of our planet has taken place since 2010. 2016 was the warmest year on record, where eight out of the 12 months were the warmest on record for those respective months.

According to the Environmental Defense Fund, our lack of inaction now is only going to worsen the already increasing levels of natural disasters, rising temperatures, length of wildfire seasons and spread of disease.

Scientists have suggested the disaster of the Australian Wildfires were largely impacted by the Earth’s rising climate. 

Even the spread of the COVID-19 is a result of human action and climate change. The World Health Organization has come out saying the disease originated with bats. These bats were being encroached on in their natural environment due to deforestation and humans came into contact with them and ended up selling them at local markets.

The point is that climate change doesn’t just mean closing schools and businesses for a few months. Climate change won’t mean a dip in the economy and the loss of toilet paper at your local grocery store. Climate change will lead to the extinction of the human race, but for some reason, people would rather buy a useless face mask than listen to a scientist begging them to change their lifestyles quickly.

What the coronavirus panic has revealed about American society is that we only learn to care about something when it’s too late and we choose to care about it in a fantastical and misguided way. Coronavirus was a far and distant fear until relatives started getting stuck on cruise ships and cousins couldn’t go to school anymore. 

Like most global problems, the U.S. blamed a lot of the issues on foreign nations’ ineptitude. There has been a lot of racism involved in the spread of the current coronavirus, with the assumption that Asian or Chinese individuals were responsible for the spread. 

Now, when we’re at risk for getting the virus, it’s not because we’re uncleanly or unprepared like those foreign nations we were quick to judge a month ago, it’s because the disease is extremely dangerous and to be taken seriously.

What this promises is that it will take climate change touching each American’s life individually before something will be done. It will take a person losing their home to a tornado, their crop to rapid temperature changes or even someone they love from a virus that was spread by human interference and climate change.

It’s a sad reality, but as long as we let fear instead of science and logic dictate our actions, we will always be those pathetic people trying to fight the virus that is climate change with the environmental equivalent of hand sanitizer.