As the world marks the four-year anniversary of the Covid-19 lockdowns, most people look back on those scary times with trepidation and regret. The original “15 days to flatten the curve” transformed into years of lockdowns, mandates and devastating long-term impacts on education and mental health.
Not so for one group who looks back on that time period wistfully: the extreme eco left, who celebrated the reduction in emissions.
With people staying home, businesses closed and nearly all forms of travel ground to a halt, the zealots pushing the narrative that the world is burning rejoiced. The shuttering of the world was a small price to pay for its impact on the climate.
The World Economic Forum’s headline on March 31, 2020 trumpeted, “How Covid-19 might help us win the fight against climate change,” while Yale’s School of the Environment published an article titled “Coronavirus Holds Key Lessons on How to Fight Climate Change.” Both urged the world to take the same swift and conclusive actions to save the planet as it had taken to slow Covid’s spread.
The celebration of Covid’s impact on the climate didn’t stop. In April, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a European-based environmental research organization, expressed joy in an online article, noting “11,000 air pollution-related deaths avoided in Europe as coal, oil consumption plummet.” A July, 2020 article on Nature.com reveled that “[s]ome obvious and immediate effects are reflected in the worldwide reports of reduced traffic congestion, clearer skies, cleaner waterways and the emergence of wildlife into human settlements.”
The global response to Covid also provided a playbook for controlling the masses. By declaring states of emergency in their jurisdictions, elected and appointed officials discovered they could consolidate power and lock down citizens with little (initial) pushback. Furthermore, Covid’s states of emergency extended well beyond traditional timeframes, with most people lacking the political willpower to challenge them.
At its most nefarious level, the 7 million deaths from Covid were only the start of what eco warriors believe is a population decline that is necessary to save the planet. Stephanie Feldstein, the Center for Biological Diversity’s population and sustainability director, said the quiet part out loud in a May, 2023 online article titled, “Population Decline Will Change the World for the Better.” In it, she opined that countries must face a fundamental economic shift: “Population decline is only a threat to an economy based on growth. Shifting to a model based on degrowth and equity alongside lower fertility rates will help fight climate change and increase wealth and well-being.”
While one might argue that an environmental organization taking such a strong anti-human stand could be forgiven, what if that message comes from a world leader? King Charles lamented the effects worldwide population growth would have on the environment as early as 1970, when he said, “In many places the number of people is increasing faster than the resources of the local environment can cope, thereby exaggerating the problems of conservation.”
Simply put, to the true believers of the theory that mankind is causing a climate catastrophe and that swift and dramatic actions are needed to avert the Earth’s demise, Covid was a real-life experiment into how the world would react to a crisis. Based on the global response, their playbook will be tweaked and planning revised for the next time.
Make no mistake, there will be a climate emergency declared in the near future, and people will need to either stand and fight, or bend their knee to the eco-centric ruling class. If we fail to do so, the ensuing losses of liberty, freedom and individual initiative will make the Covid era pale in comparison.
Rick Whitbeck is the Alaska State Director for Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs and fights back against economy-killing and family-destroying environmental extremism. Contact him at Rick@PowerTheFuture.com and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @PTFAlaska. Power the Future has donated to the DCNF.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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