© Getty Images/Ollie MillingtonProtestors from the Green Anti-Capitalist Front (GAF) on February 28, 2020 in London.
While the short-term benefits from the global Covid-19 lockdown may be valuable,
the long-term effects will be disastrous.Numerous commentators have extolled the positive effect that the global Covid-19 shutdown is having on the environment. Air quality has greatly improved in areas where there has been a 'lockdown', fish have returned to Venice's canals, and satellite observations from the European Space Agency have revealed a drastic drop in pollution over Europe. As
Graham Dockery has noted elsewhere on RT, this is an impact that Greta Thunberg and other environmentalists could only dream about.
But don't cheer too loudly: in the longer term,
the kind of societal shutdown that we have seen in China and across Europe and America triggers a global recession that will be a disaster for the environment. Economic activity has slumped. Stock market values have plummeted. Many businesses are simply running out of cash and a significant proportion of them will collapse. In the UK, for example, well-known stores like Carphone Warehouse and Laura Ashley have already succumbed, as has a regional airline, Flybe. Those businesses were already in trouble, but stronger companies will soon be in trouble, too.
Governments are offering enormous sums in grants and loan guarantees to protect businesses and workers. When the dust has settled, and those bills must be paid,
will there really be such an appetite — let alone the money — to pursue climate-change policies?
Comment: Previously: