Climate Change Remains Persistent Amid Pandemic, Says Bill McKibben

Carbon Emissions — In this April 21, 2020, file photo, 42nd Street in New York has very little traffic. The world cut its daily carbon dioxide emissions by 17% at the peak of the pandemic shutdown last month, a new study found. But with life and heat-trapping gas levels inching back toward normal, the brief pollution break will likely be “a drop in the ocean" when it comes to climate change, scientists said.

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

May 26, 2020

Updated August 07, 2023

Global emissions have plunged during the coronavirus lockdown, but climate change remains persistent, according to Bill McKibben.

The environmentalist and journalist spoke with Boston Public Radio on Tuesday about this and the Trump adminstration's rollbacks on envirnomental protections during the pandemic.

"For a few weeks, we shut down most of the global economy so things cleaned up quickly, like smog and water pollution that just come from daily enviromnmental problems," he said. "That's not to be laughed at, but it's not going to do much at all by itself to stop climate change."

It's been made clear that fossil fuels are hardwired into our every day and global systems, McKibben said, but that the rise of renewable energy can't be slowed for too long.

"The Trump administration is doing it's best to make a bad situation as terrible as it's possible to make it," he said. "In the course of this, they've bailed out the fossil fuel industry left and right, and they've gone out of their way to make life as difficult as possible for the renewable energy people, most of whom are small businesses."