The coronavirus pandemic stay-at-home orders and lockdowns resulted in a huge drop in global greenhouse gas emissions — the largest reductions since World War II. The reductions were short-lived as the U.S. and other countries opened back up, but there are lessons we can take away from the pandemic about global climate change and how we’re handling both crises. In this episode of Unfold, we look at surprising similarities between the climate crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.
In this episode:
, co-director, at Â鶹´«Ã½
, affiliate faculty member, former director of the at Â鶹´«Ã½
associate adjunct professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Â鶹´«Ã½ School of Medicine
, associate director, at Â鶹´«Ã½
Transcript
Amy Quinton Hey Unfold fans. Welcome to a new season of episodes. This time, we also have a new co-host. It's Kat Kerlin. Hey, Amy. Kat joins us also from our news team here at Â鶹´«Ã½.
Kat Kerlin Yeah, I'm really excited to be here. Thanks, Amy.
Amy Quinton She brings with her a wealth of experience covering the environment, which is great for this season of Unfold, because we're focusing on what one could argue is the biggest challenge facing the world right now. And that's climate change.
Kat Kerlin Whoa. I could have sworn you were going to say coronavirus.
Amy Quinton No doubt coronavirus is at the top of everyone's mind. It seems a never-ending challenge. But Kat, as we all know, climate change hasn't stopped just because so many of us are still sheltering in place or at least avoiding crowds. In fact, one of our researchers here at Â鶹´«Ã½ put it this way.
Fraser Shilling We have a viral crisis right now, but the climate crisis isn't going away.
Kat Kerlin Who was that?
Fraser Shilling That was . I interviewed him, via Zoom from my closet during the beginning of the virus when practically everything was shut down. The closet, you know, it seemed like a safe space and it still seems like a safe space.
Kat Kerlin Ah, yes. Fraser released a study that showed all those stay at home orders resulted in a huge decrease in traffic and greenhouse gas emissions, which are, of course, the gases that cause climate change. You can read about that report on our , climatechange.ucdavis.edu.
Amy Quinton Nice plug, Kat.
Kat Kerlin I try, but that study highlights an interesting point. There is a connection between coronaviruses and climate change.
Amy Quinton There is. And we're going to have more on that study in a moment, because in this episode of Unfold, we're going to be looking at the connections and similarities between climate change and COVID-19.
Kat Kerlin To name just a few: They're both huge global problems. They both affect the world's most vulnerable populations. They both involve bending or flattening a curve.
Amy Quinton [And dare I point out all of the negative similarities?
Kat Kerlin It's hard to stop you from pointing out the negative, Amy.
Amy Quinton You're right. Both crises also show us how inadequately prepared we are for disasters, how we politicize or flat out deny the science and how bad we are at anticipating the consequences of our own actions. How's that? Is that negative enough? I could go on.
Kat Kerlin No, you can stop. We're also going to talk about the lessons we've learned, at least so far from this pandemic that might help us in the fight against climate change.
Theme: Coming to you from our closet studios as we shelter in place across the Sacramento region, this is Unfold, a Â鶹´«Ã½ podcast that breaks down complicated problems and discusses solutions. I'm Amy Quinton.
Kat Kerlin And I'm Kat Kerlin.
Amy Quinton This week we unfold climate change and COVID. So, Kat, let's just bring people up to speed on what a wonderful world it's been since our last episode of Unfold launched last year.
Kat Kerlin Yes, 2020 got off to a great start.
Amy Quinton Right. I was busy writing all these fascinating stories about climate change for this upcoming season. I even traveled to Africa in January to cover some of our research going on there. And I get back and I hear this.
News Clips A new virus appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan last month.
Amy Quinton And from there, as you know, it escalates.
News Clips Autopsy show that two people who died in Santa Clara County on February 6th and the 17th tested positive for the virus.
News Clips How many Americans will die from COVID-19. At this point, we just don't know.
News Clips He held a rally. He didn't mention the virus during his speech. And in a local TV interview that night, he said, I think it's going to work out fine.
CA Governor Gavin Newsom That testing number may sound high to some. It is low to many others. And certainly to me.
NY Governor Andrew Cuomo To have this happen over this weekend is really, really especially tragic. And they are all in their thoughts and prayers.
News Clips Because this virus is new to science and new to humans, we have no idea how long immunity is going to last.
News Clips As we know, supply chain issues have made it difficult to have the proper protective gear.
News Clips And some fear the administration might cut corners to meet that ambitious schedule as a way to gain a political advantage.
News Clips Attendance will be limited and everyone will be required to wear masks.
Amy Quinton [We all know that climate change did not cause COVID-19, but certain human actions on this planet are creating a world where pathogens like coronaviruses are more likely to spread.
Kat Kerlin That's right. Both climate change and habitat destruction can make animals and humans more susceptible to infectious diseases while also bringing animals into closer contact with humans.
Amy Quinton So you might ask, how can this happen? How can climate change lead to the spread of viruses or other types of pathogens in animals or humans? I talked to about this. She's the associate director of the at Â鶹´«Ã½ School of Veterinary Medicine.
Kat Kerlin She led a that found that the melting of Arctic sea ice unleashed this deadly virus for marine mammals in the North Pacific. It's called Phocine Distemper Virus, or PDV, and it was found in sea otters, northern fur seals and steller sea lions.
Amy Quinton The virus itself isn't new. It's part of the same genus of viruses that cause distemper and dogs and measles in humans. PDV also has been in marine mammals before, but only in the Atlantic Ocean, not in the Pacific. And Tracy says it's deadly, particularly for harbor seals.
Tracy Goldstein Harbor seals are really, really susceptible. And in fact, in 1988 and 2002, this virus was estimated to kill about 50 percent of the population in harbor seals. So very, very easy to transmit between animals and just huge mortality rates. So the concern was that we suddenly saw this virus in the Atlantic, you know, move into the Pacific, into an area where we know they are potentially really susceptible populations that have never seen that virus. And so we wanted to try to understand wasn't circulating how susceptible were animals, was it causing deaths?
Kat Kerlin So researchers began to examine the differences between the outbreak in '88 when the virus did not show up in the Pacific, and in 2002 when it did.
Tracy Goldstein And the difference was in '88, there was really good ice cover in the Arctic and likely not channels for animals to move. But in 2002, there was really one of the first really dramatic years. If you take a look at the sea ice data of a huge reduction in sea ice, and since that time, we've seen that in many other years.
Amy Quinton Their analysis found infection peaked in 2002 and 2003 and then again and 2009.
Tracy Goldstein And the two things that were consistent both those years was the ice channels were open in sort of the year before when we saw the peak. And the concern is now is in since 2008, really, there's been open channels and ice every single year since that time.
Kat Kerlin And that raises a lot of concerns, not just for animals, but for humans, too.
Amy Quinton Right. Because we're talking about landscapes changing on a massive scale. Tracy mentioned to me that with less Arctic sea ice, ships can now reach places they haven't been before.
Kat Kerlin And we've deforested large swaths of land as our population expands. And all of this is bringing more people into contact with wild animals that can change the distribution of viruses and bacteria.
Tracy Goldstein The contact between people and animals is changing. It's becoming more frequent. It's becoming more intense. And because of that, I think that's what's leading to these spillovers and potentially more of them more frequently.
Amy Quinton What scares me, Kat, is the potential for zombie viruses.
Kat Kerlin Mm hmm. Whoa. What?
Amy Quinton Yeah, scientists actually call them that. As the Arctic warms twice as fast as the rest of the world, the ground, you know, the permafrost is starting to thaw. It could unleash all sorts of microbes and viruses and revive long dead diseases. Some of the bodies of the 1918 flu pandemic are buried there. Of course, we don't know if any of the viruses can survive. But I read that the bacteria anthrax can survive as well as tetanus and botulism. And then there are all those viruses that we've never heard of.
Kat Kerlin There you go again, Miss Negative.
Amy Quinton Sorry. Well, another negative and another link between climate change and COVID is the people who are affected the most.
Kat Kerlin We saw with the coronavirus that in most communities, the poor, the elderly, people of color were the people most affected by COVID-19.
Helene Margolis I knew ahead of time who was going to be the populations most at risk.
Amy Quinton That's , an associate adjunct professor in medicine and the Department of Internal Medicine at Â鶹´«Ã½.
Kat Kerlin She's also with the . She expanded on who she thought would be most at risk. It turns out it's the same populations that are most vulnerable to climate change.
Helene Margolis Underserved and under-resourced communities and unfortunately, in this country, it's most often people of color. The elderly and the individuals who do not have access to health care, who live in communities where they don't have basic resources in terms of food even are at greater risk and there's a much greater preponderance of these chronic health conditions, the cardiovascular, diabetes, obesity and respiratory, that put them at higher risk both of a climate change related exposure and of a COVID-19.
Amy Quinton So how is it that climate change puts these populations at risk?
Helene Margolis Most greenhouse gas emissions are from combustion sources, vehicles, power plants. It's not just greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. It's also the air pollutants that we already know have adverse effects on health, in terms of our lungs, our cardiovascular systems. And it's not just the acute exposures, it's this chronic exposure. So people who live in highly polluted places have damaged lungs and damaged cardiovascular systems due to those air pollutants.
Kat Kerlin Let's face it, the neighborhoods next to busy highways and industrial polluters are poor neighborhoods. It's all connected.
Amy Quinton And so Helene says, if we can ease climate change, we can also ease some of these health conditions. In other words, there are co-benefits.
Helene Margolis If we address the greenhouse gases and reduce vehicle miles traveled to reduce our reliance on carbon producing fuels. And if we could switch to renewables, we're going to have less air pollution. And I'm talking at the street level where people are exposed.
Kat Kerlin Did she say how to go about doing that?
Amy Quinton [She says it starts with making communities healthier and more resilient to climate change.
Helene Margolis If you create a healthier community where you address these weaknesses or the vulnerabilities, and they're basically called the social determinants of health, where you look at access to care, healthy food, opportunities for physical activity, safe stress-free environments. So overall, creating living conditions that are better. And much of the efforts around the world, but also here in California to address climate change and vulnerabilities, is building sustainable communities that also address health promotion, preventing these basic chronic diseases.
Amy Quinton Of course, that sounds pretty difficult.
Kat Kerlin Well, at least we got a break from air pollution and greenhouse gases during those stay at home orders.
Amy Quinton Right. And we said at the top of this episode that we were going to talk about Fraser Shilling'