If for a second you thought that the planet was finally healing because of covid-19 and then felt a twist in your stomach, you are not alone.
In my environmental biology class last semester, one of my most memorable questions on a test was, “which of the following responses to climate change is not considered moral: a) wait and see, b) “muddling through” as problems arise, c) population control?”
In a heartbeat, I chose ‘wait and see.’ And in my head I thought, “how is it moral for people to just wait and not do anything about climate change,” and “why should we wait to fix a problem when we can make proactive choices now?”
There are a lot of loosely valid (and terribly close-minded) reasons out there such as, ‘the economy will suffer,’ ‘the disruption of lifestyles,’ and ‘it doesn’t affect me.’ (Sound familiar?)
The “correct” answer was ‘population control.’ It’s considered immoral to control the population, which when given thought, yes, calculated genocide is extremely horrible (but what if it was an accident, like let’s say a virus?).
And to be honest, any of the three answers could be justified as immoral. Let’s just agree that the question was horribly written.
The purpose of the anecdote was to bring to light how fucked up climate change is and the real-life consequences we must deal with.
Continuing with life as we knew it before covid-19 will not be our saving grace when covid-19 levels out. In fact, we must redefine what it means to live and translate it so that we protect the diversity of human cultures.
It wasn’t impossible when we lived in harmony with nature a few hundred years ago but getting there will certainly be a journey- whether we get there morally or not.
