Coronavirus vs climate change

I know there's a risk that this will end up getting moved to FHoPolitics, but I'm going to post this here initially because I think it's not a political issue.

On Sunday night, the Australian Prime Minister gave a speech. It was characteristically pointless and stupid. It was supposed to be about new social-distancing measures and whether or not schools would be closed. (We still have absolutely no clarity on the latter.) But he spent much of it having a rant about irresponsible young people going to the beach. The Chief Medical Officer was there too, and made similar comments. Here are a couple of extracts:

PRIME MINISTER

And we need all Australians to be following the health advice when it comes to keeping a healthy distance and observing the limits that relate to gatherings, whether they be outdoor or they be indoor. This is incredibly important. The failure of our public to do that will put people at risk and make it extremely difficult for governments to be able to take actions that can control the flow and spread of this virus. Governments must do their bit and we are, but we need Australians to do their bit. On the weekend, what we saw was a disregard of those social distancing practices as people turned up to the beach in large numbers, crammed venues in our major cities. As I flagged this morning, this sent a very clear message to premiers, chief ministers and myself that the social distancing practices are not being observed as well as they should be.

CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER

If Australia is going to get through the challenge of this pandemic over the coming months, we have to live differently. We’ve been making that point very clear over the last week. But it's also clear that some people haven't got it. And I'm particularly talking to young people who may think they're immune to the effects of this virus. And it's true, most young people don't get significant disease. But as a young person, you don’t want to be responsible for the severe and possibly fatal disease of an older, vulnerable Australian. We have to stop the rapid spread of this virus.

........

We are going to live differently if we're going to get through this virus without serious impacts on the vulnerable in our community and serious impacts on the health system.​

Bondi Beach was pretty busy on Saturday. It is media and social-media outrage over this that has driven some of this speech. I've seen similar stuff about Spring Break kids going to the beach in Florida.

All of this really made me think.

For the past 20 years, we've seen the following conversation, over and over again. (I know this is PriusChat, and that the old people on here are generally pretty responsible, but I think this is a fair generalisation.)

YOUNG PEOPLE: Climate change is going to make life terrible for all of us in the future.
OLD PEOPLE: No it isn't.
YOUNG PEOPLE: Yes it is. And it will kill millions of us, and destroy the lives of millions more. We really need you to address it. Please could you make some minor changes to your lifestyle over the next 10-20 years? Maybe pay slightly more for energy, and invest in green energy, and switch to electric cars?
OLD PEOPLE: No. I like V8s. I like big ICE cars. I like coal miners having jobs. I like travelling wherever I want, whenever I want. It would cost too much for us to change our lifestyles. I don't want to spend up to 30 minutes charging an electric car. Coal miners would lose their jobs, and there are several of them. We could lose up to 1% in GDP growth rates if we follow your ridiculous greenie plans.
YOUNG PEOPLE: But if you don't do this, we will suffer and many of us will die.
OLD PEOPLE: I don't care. I will be gone by then. And I am not willing to pay for something that does not directly affect me. I like my lifestyle and I am not going to change it.
THE GOVERNMENT: We are not going to do anything about this. Maybe a few token measures that might help us reach some pointless target over the next 30 years, but nothing that would actually impact the lifestyle of old people or have a short-term impact on the economy. ​

Over the last two weeks, we've seen this conversation:

OLD PEOPLE: There is coronavirus. It is spreading and it will kill some old people.
YOUNG PEOPLE: Yes, that is true.
OLD PEOPLE: It will kill tens of thousands of us, and make others of us sick. We need to address it. So we will. By "we", we mean "you". All of you who are baristas or bar staff or waiters or cooks will lose your jobs. Your education will stop. You will not be allowed to have a social life. You will not be allowed to go out. You will not be allowed to travel. Your career prospects will disappear. GDP growth will take a hit of 2-5% (optimistically). Rather than doing this over the next 30 years like we're not going to do for your problem, you will do all of this by Tuesday.
YOUNG PEOPLE: So when you said it was too expensive to address the climate change that will kill millions of us, it's not too expensive to lose much more money to address a disease that will kill far fewer?
OLD PEOPLE: YES, BUT THAT WAS STUFF THAT AFFECTED YOUNG PEOPLE! WE ARE OLD! YOU WILL DO OUR BIDDING!
THE GOVERNMENT: If you don't comply with these rules to protect some old people, you will be arrested.
​

Basically, why the F should these young people stop going to the beach when they're not allowed to work? Old people have not cared about them for a generation, and have refused to pay the very minor economic and social prices required to address a very serious and deadly problem. And now those very same old people are OUTRAGED that a few young people aren't quite making all of the massive changes to their lives that they were asked to make a couple of days ago. Really, what do the young owe the old over this?

When Australia's Chief Medical Officer said, "If Australia is going to get through the challenge of this pandemic over the coming months, we have to live differently", he was saying what Greta Thunberg has been saying - about far smaller changes in our life to overcome a far bigger challenge - over the last year. And our Prime Minister said she should "go back to school".

Honestly, I'm really not very impressed.

 

Indeed. But it's not the responsible ones who decide policy. If only it were.