COVID-19, Climate Change, and Equity

COVID-19 Recovery Spending Could Catalyze Transformative Change, But Time is Running Out

Nations must plan now to make sure their stimulus efforts support a green, and more equitable, future.

18 December 2020 – Originalpost from The Hill

Multisolving Our Way to COVID-19 Economic Recovery

The next president will be inaugurated in the midst of a raging pandemic, an economic recession, a crisis of structural racism and an escalating climate emergency. The best chance for making progress on any of these issues is to tackle them all together.

16 November 2020 – Originalpost from The Revelator

A Green Recovery: The Case for Climate-Forward Stimulus Policies in America’s COVID-19 Recession Response

Ultimately, the US can and should recognize this moment for what it is—a rare opportunity to address two existential crises, climate and economic catastrophe, at once—and work to craft economic packages that capitalize upon it.

October 2020 – Report by Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Kristina Karlsoon, Kitty Richards, Bracken Hendricks, and David Arkush at the Roosevelt Institute

How can a Coronavirus Response Reduce Inequity and Protect the Climate?

Everywhere you look, records are being broken: record high numbers of people filing unemployment claims; record numbers of new COVID-19 cases in many states; record numbers of people in t he streets protesting for racial equity; and the highest temperatures ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle. Amid a triple crisis, a ‘multisolving’ response can mitigate the effects of the pandemic, inequity and climate change all at once.

9 July 2020 – Original post from Thomson Reuters Foundation

COVID-19 sucks but it could teach us how to avoid the worst consequences of climate change

COVID-19 is like an accelerated version of climate change, where we will move from recognizing the problem to acting on it to looking for lessons learned over a span of months rather than decades. What might this speeded-up version of climate change teach us about dealing with an existential threat that is growing exponentially?

2 April 2020 – Original post from Resilience.org

Why We Can’t Ignore the Link Between COVID-19, Climate Change and Inequity

Time and money are in short supply. There isn’t enough of either to treat equity, climate change and the current pandemic as separate issues. A holistic, multisolving approach is an effective, cost-saving way to tackle the great challenges of our times.

1 April 2020 – Original post from US News

Steps to re-invigorate the economy must free us from polluting fossil fuels

The opportunities are clear, well-studied, and well-documented. Clean air and water don’t only result from loss and upheaval; they can be planned for, designed for, and invested in, and they can even produce other benefits at the same time.

How Our COVID Response Can Address Climate Change And So Much More

Part of what we are doing with these multi-solving networks, as well as trying to shift how budgets are spent and how policy is made, we’re also creating  little bubbles of partnership culture as opposed to domination culture.

Article written by Pip Wheaton, 5 February 2021 – Original post from Forbes

So, Jeff Bezos, You Really Want to Fix the Planet?

Amazon’s founder is stepping down to focus on other projects, like the Bezos Earth Fund. Here’s what he can do to help fix the mess humans have made of the world.

Article written by Matt Simon, 4 February 2021 – Original post from Wired

Climate Change is Turning Cities into Ovens

A new model estimates that by 2100, cities across the world could warm as much as 4.4 degrees Celsius. It’s a deadly consequence of the heat-island effect.

Article written by Matt Simon, 7 January 2021 – Original post from Wired

2020 Was Supposed To Be Our Best Last Chance To Save The Planet. So How Did We Do?

As the coronavirus pandemic raged, hopes this year would be pivotal for climate change action faded. But all is not lost. Yet.

Article written by Beth Gardiner, 19 December 2020 – Original post from Huffington Post

Could Biden Rebuild the Economy by Funding Green Energy?

Let’s suppose Americans choose Joe Biden to replace Donald Trump as president. (And also that the world doesn’t end sometime in the next month.) What might that mean for the fight against climate change?

Article written by Matt Simon, 8 October 2020 – Original post from Wired

Climate Grief is Burning Across the American West

Climate change is making wildfires bigger, fiercer, and deadlier, fueling a new kind of despair on the West Coast—and beyond.

Article written by Matt Simon, 14 September 2020 – Original post from Wired

What the Climate Crisis Can Teach Us About Fixing the Parenting Crisis

Dr. Beth Sawin has spent decades studying systems change, and what she’s learned about the climate crisis and various other crises gave us a surprising feeling … dare we say hope?

Podcastepisode on Labor Podcast , 1 September 2020

What the Pandemic has Revealed about Climate Change Views, Activism

2020 feels like a whirlwind of news and change. But even as new issues — like the coronavirus have arisen — previous problems haven’t gone away and their depths have been highlighted or exacerbated amid the pandemic. One of those issues is climate change.

Article written by Kerri Miller, Breann Schossow, and Kelly Gordon 4 August 2020 – Original post from Minnesota Public Radio

From Climate Change and COVID-10 to Racial Injustice, We are In a Period of Rapid Transformation. How Do We Make Sense of What’s Happening?

A perfect storm of crises is forming across the United States. Above our Four scholars from around the world offer insights into how we might steer the tumult of 2020 toward a more positive future.

Article written by Kate Knuth, 14 July 2020 – Original post from Ensia

How a ‘Heat Dome’ Forms – and Why This One Is So Perilous

A perfect storm of crises is forming across the United States. Above our heads, a “heat dome” of high pressure could blast 80 percent of the continental US with temperatures over 90 degrees for the next few weeks. This coming in a summer when the Covid-19 lockdown has trapped people indoors, many without air-conditioning—and mass unemployment may mean that residents with AC units can’t afford to run them.

Article written by Matt Simon, 10 July 2020 – Original post fromWired

Want to Design A Livable Future? Try ‘Multisolving’

Dr. Elizabeth Sawin talks about the potential of En-ROADS to change communities and the organization’s practice of “multisolving” — employing collaborative solutions that work for climate change, health, equity and well-being — and how improving the social safety net can also help address the climate crisis.

Article written by Tara Lohan, 1 July 2020 – Original post fromThe Revelator

50 years later, Earth Day’s unsolved problem: How to build a more sustainable world

Fifty years ago, flames sprang from the oil-slicked surface of a Cleveland river. Smog choked Los Angeles. Pesticides silenced millions of insects and birds. Oil gushed from a busted well off California, swamping anything that lived in the ocean. Then, on April 22, 1970, 10 percent of America took to the streets for the first Earth Day. It was an unprecedented demonstration on behalf of nature, a declaration that people could not thrive unless the planet did, too.

Article written by Sarah Kaplan, 22 April 2020 – Original post fromWashington Post

Coronavirus Holds A Magnifying Glass To America’s Inequalities And The View Is Brutal

When the COVID-19 pandemic is past, societies may adopt some important measures that would lower emissions, from more teleconferencing to shortening global supply chains. But the most lasting lesson may be what the coronavirus teaches us about the urgency of taking swift action.

Article written by Beth Gardiner, 16 April 2020 – Original post fromHuffington Post

La crisis del coronavirus: una oportunidad para el ecologismo en EEUU

Los grupos medioambientales de Estados Unidos no quieren desaprovechar la ventana para la lucha contra el cambio climático que se ha abierto con la crisis del coronavirus y buscan promover  un modelo económico más limpio y sostenible.

Article written by Argemino Barro, 9 April 2020 – Original post fromEl Ágora

Stimulus Funds Can Transition Economies Away from Climate Wrecking Activity

The coronavirus is a deadly human tragedy, causing untold grief and pain. It is also rocking the world’s economies as people lose income and businesses struggle to stay afloat. Yet there are lessons to be learned for the climate crisis.

Article written by Ros Davidson, 3 April 2020 – Original post fromForesight Climate & Energy

The Lessons We Choose

This will not be the last crisis. What can we learn from this one? Gray rhinos,’ in author Michele Wucker’s thinking, are dangers that are very likely to hit, and very damaging when they do. She came up with the metaphor as a counterpoint to the popular idea of a black swan, writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s phrase for high impact, but very unlikely, scenarios that are inherently surprising…

Article written by Beth Gardiner, 2 April 2020 – Original post from Granta

Life in a Carbon Neutral World

Examples of crisis response that solve multiple problems with one investment; bring people together across silos, and produce novelty via emergence and improvisation.Increasing numbers of cities and countries around the globe are pledging to become net carbon neutral within the next few decades. But what will day-to-day life look like in a “net-zero” world?

Article written by Kate Ravilious, 2 April 2020 – Original post fromPhysics World

Coronavirus Holds Key Lessons on How to Fight Climate Change

When the COVID-19 pandemic is past, societies may adopt some important measures that would lower emissions, from more teleconferencing to shortening global supply chains. But the most lasting lesson may be what the coronavirus teaches us about the urgency of taking swift action.

Article written by Beth Gardiner, 23 March 2020 – Original post from Yale Environment 360