This story was originally published by The Guardian and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration
Polluting industries around the world are using the coronavirus pandemic to gain billions of dollars in bailouts and to weaken and delay environmental protections.
Governments and bosses claim to be at war with coronavirus. In reality, it is a war against our social class that they are waging. A war against us for their profits!
In the face of the COVID-19 tsunami, our lives are changing in ways that were inconceivable just a few short weeks ago. Not since the 2008-09 economic collapse has the world collectively shared an experience of this kind: a single, rapidly-mutating, global crisis, structuring the rhythm of our daily lives within a complex calculus of risk and competing probabilities.
The measures taken to stop the pandemic have set a new standard for our collective response to the climate crisis
If a few months ago I suggested that we should shrink the cruise ship industry as a response to the climate emergency, you would probably have rolled your eyes. But now that the cruise industry is on the verge of a shutdown that could bankrupt major operators, does it seem so impossible?