Is the COVID-19 pandemic a precursor for our planet\u2019s future under climate change?<\/p>\n
Yes, says Adam Frank, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University, in an analysis for NBC News.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther than the occasional hurricane or earthquake, we have lived our whole lives taking for granted that this thing we call \u2018civilization\u2019 was a machine that could never fail,\u201d he writes. \u201cIt\u2019s time to wake up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The COVID-19 pandemic has already disrupted and altered the social, transportation, energy, economic, and health care networks our global civilization has built over the last 100 years. Like the pandemic, climate change will also have long-term effects on these networks as heat waves, floods, fires, and storms inundate our systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I asked you just a few weeks ago to imagine what that would look like, what it would feel like, to see those networks stressed, you\u2019d probably point to some Hollywood science fiction movie,\u201d Frank writes. \u201cToday, you just have to turn on the news. Now we know firsthand the dread that follows when these systems are threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n