A tale of two responses

Peter du ToitI'm the founder of FutureWork IQ where I spend my time assisting businesses to improve their climate literacy so as to understand the projected impacts from the expanding climate crisis and how to adapt their workplaces in the face of these impacts.

We have all just lived through the first tale: Lockdowns, infections, loss of loved ones, serious disruption to our lives and the global economy and now finally the vaccine rollout – proceeding painstakingly slowly given the sheer volumes of people that will need to be vaccinated.

However, we can see a light at the end of the tunnel, especially if we look at data coming out of Israel and the impact of vaccines on infections there.

Now that we are seeing the possibility of returning to our former lives we are hearing sentiments like “At last we can go back to normal!” “I can’t wait to fly again!” etc.

However, while we have focused our energy on the pandemic, another crisis far more deadly than COVID-19 is unfolding unabated: Our heating planet and resultant biodiversity collapse.

CO2 concentrations continue to rise. Where is the global emergency response to this crisis, a thousand times more deadly and for which there is no vaccine?

As we build back we better quickly figure out how we can do the things we want to do WITHOUT the need to burn fossil fuels in the process. If we don’t we will talk fondly of the pandemic experience in comparison to the devastation unleashed by a planet filled with climate refugees.