Corona, Class, and Climate

By Harry Smith
November 2020

In March, as we all moved indoors in lockdowns across the Western World, our new normal allowed for plenty of time to contemplate the new dual crises of our time: climate and Corona, no doubt spurred on by the parallels in ‘flattening the curve(s)’ of increasing greenhouse gas emissions and Coronavirus cases. Yet much analysis fell flat, or risked flattening the discourse altogether. As cases took hold across the U.S. in March, a New York Times op-ed claimed that we are just ‘bad as individuals at thinking about tomorrow’[1], meanwhile Forbes in May purported that ‘lockdowns and decarbonization share much in common, from tourism and international travel to shopping and having a good time’[2].

Our dual crises warrant more introspection than blaming the human condition or framing both climate action and pandemics as fun-destroying spoilsports. In both cases lives are at stake, and so far, little has been done to reflect upon one of the interwoven causes: class.

Affluence is the Missing Thread

A so called ‘wet market’, owing to the need to hose down after animals are slaughtered[1], the media cast the market in Wuhan, China, suspected of COVID-19’s origin, as a backwards place of squalor, yet the opposite may be true. The risk of ‘zoonotic spillover’ or the passing of novel viruses to humans increases as humans flatten ecosystems through deforestation or crowd many kinds of live animals into markets[3]. Much of this rests on the global wildlife trade, often-illegal flows of rare species as commodities to be sold and eaten[3].

Yet this alone does not answer why such markets exist. Journal articles point to one clear factor: class. Far from being backwards, these wet markets were frequented not by the working class searching for cheap meat, but by the rich businessmen[1]. In the wildlife trade, the rarest foods offer the highest price, providing a perverse incentive as species approach extinction[2]. Some see this not as an unlucky blowback on China’s bourgeois, but rather the result of markets encroaching further into nature as capitalist development reaches new heights[3].

A recent high-profile article in Nature Communications firmly placed responsibility for the climate crisis on ‘super-affluent consumers’, rich individuals with vast emissions through their own consumption of resources, influence over financial capital, and the setting of societal consumptive aspirations[3]. These individuals often control capitalist development, a financial class enabling emissions to reach new heights while adding their own emissions on top[6]. Similarly, the wildlife trade is propelled by affluent consumers, who allow these markets to continue for similar positional consumption, a status symbol to be eaten, laced with pandemic potential.

The Poor Pandemic

As the pandemic took hold, public health researchers theorised the link between air pollution exposure and vulnerability to COVID-19[1], with dire implications given the social dimensions of air quality. It has long been a central to the environmental justice movement that dirty carbon-intensive industries pollute poor and politically disenfranchised communities[2].

Air pollution accounting studies now point to the habits of the rich populace as the overwhelming cause[3]. These are the same communities likely to face destitution owing to predatory working arrangements and economic uncertainties, slipping through the cracks of any pandemic social safety net. The poor therefore carry the physical and economic burden of Corona, in addition to brunt of climate breakdown. The fact that Wuhan in 2019 was the centre of protests against the pollution from industrial plants now carries new symbolism[4].

It should go without saying that the above is far from comprehensive, many lists of similarities have been made elsewhere. In the above I’ve tried to add what I feel is often absent from this discourse: class. I’m sure this will change again, after all the pandemic is far from through. One certainty remains true, however, climate and corona are more accurately described, not as dual crises but a class crisis intertwined.

You May Also Be Interested In: Climate Change & Air Pollution, Modern Slavery & The Environment, Colonialism, Hegemony, and the Environment

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References:
[1] Climate Change Has Lessons for Fighting the Coronavirus, New York Times (2020), available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/climate/climate-change-coronavirus-lessons.html
[2] Coronavirus And Climate Change: A Tale Of Two Hysterias, Forbes (2020), available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tilakdoshi/2020/05/14/coronavirus-and-climate-change-a-tale-of-two-hysterias/#7c5b64ddb53b
[3] Corona, Climate and Chronic Emergency, Andreas Malm (2020), Verso Books
[4] Wildlife trade, consumption and conservation awareness in southwest China, Zhang et al (2008), Biodiversity and Conservation, available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-008-9358-8#Tab2
[5] Regulating wildlife conservation and food safety to prevent human exposure to novel virus, Wuan et al (2020), Ecosystem Health and Sustainability, available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20964129.2020.1741325
[6] Scientists’ warning on affluence, Wiedmann et al (2020), Nature Communications, available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16941-y#:~:text=The%20warnings%20aptly%20describe%20the,pursuit%20of%20affluence1%2C2.
[7] Q&A: A Harvard Expert on Environment and Health Discusses Possible Ties Between COVID and Climate, Neela Banerjee – Inside Climate News, (2020), available at: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11032020/coronavirus-harvard-doctor-climate-change-public-health
[8] WHAT RACISM SMELLS LIKE Ravaged by Covid-19, Polluted Communities Demand Environmental Justice, The Intercept, (2020), available at: https://theintercept.com/2020/08/08/coronavirus-pollution-environmental-justice-racism/
[9] See: ‘Inequality of household consumption and air pollution-related deaths in China, Zhao et al (2019), Nature Communications, available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12254-x#Sec6’ for a perspective within China, or see ‘Emissions vs exposure: Increasing injustice from road traffic-related air pollution in the United Kingdom, Barnes et al (2019), Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1361920919300392#’ for a UK perspective.
[10] China has made major progress on air pollution. Wuhan protests show there's still a long way to go, CNN (2019), available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/10/asia/china-wuhan-pollution-problems-intl-hnk/index.html

© 2020 Climate Just Collective