Climate Lessons from a Virus: Invisibility
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Photo Dmitry Kostyukov, New york Times
Staying home to be safe from a global virus has given some of us time for a new perspective on global climate change. In our views of cities’ empty streets you can’t see the pandemic threat. It echoes for me how we can’t see global warming.
I asked myself: How can we use what we’re learning from the pandemic to reduce the threats from climate change?
Comparing a pandemic to climate change
To compare the corona virus and climate threats I took a big picture overview of the similarities and differences between the two. I came up with four Similarities and one Difference.
4 Similarities: Virus = Climate change
Both the virus and climate change
1. Are Invisible
2. Are Global
3. Impact Groups Unequally
4. Have Known Solutions
1 Difference: Virus ≠ Climate change
The two threats have different time scales as they unfold, one very fast, one very slow.
Invisible Threats
We have trouble understanding how physical threats work when they are invisible to the naked eye. Both the virus and climate are physical threats and we learn about them through science.
Since the invention of the telescope we’ve relied increasingly scientists’ tools to understand our physical worlds. We depend on their complicated measuring tools and computer models to handle the two kinds of invisibility.
Some threats not on the visual wave length
Heat is one of these, so science uses heat-sensing thermometers of various kinds, to take your temp or that of whole of regions.
Other threats are beyond the human scale.
We can’t see things that are too small or too big.
The corona virus is way below what even many microscopes can see.
Microscope zooms in on details
Studies of the atmosphere are so broad that they views far and wide to identify overall patterns of change.
Telescope zooms out to big picture
Learn from the Virus. Hints for using science to see the invisible.
Upgrade sources for your science information. Consider adding one.
Check your source’s sources. Click the “About” button on web sources to learn of their credentials.
Start with legitimate sources for basics. NOAA and NASA are good for climate info. Go to CDC for covid data.
Check out small print on graphs. Here’s a five-minute roundup of types of covid graphs from DataViz to alert you to some of complexities.
Learn from those you trust. Stay in touch with friends who are better at interpreting science information about covid, climate, or both.
And finally,
Check the next blog for how the virus and warming are both global. Subscribe here.
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