Editorial | Convergence of coronavirus and natural disasters a reminder of the challenges world faces
- The basic prescription for tackling global warming and the pandemic is the same – all the world’s governments agreeing on a strategy and working together with a common goal. But that is not happening in either case, with the United States being the major outsider refusing to cooperate
The Covid-19 pandemic has put immense pressure on Hong Kong. But the physical, financial and psychological impact is mild compared to places elsewhere that have also been struck by extreme weather events and accompanying natural disasters like floods, fires, heatwaves and droughts.
Affected governments, their emergency resources already stretched by the health crisis, have struggled to balance the need for testing and treatment of patients and social distancing with evacuations, rescues and relief measures.
These would appear to be extraordinary times, but given the events can be put down to climate change, the convergence is a grim reminder of the challenges the world faces.
Severe flooding in China and India, wildfires in California in the United States and heatwaves in Southeast Asia are among the weather extremes governments have been tested by while battling Covid-19.
Preventing the spread of the coronavirus is problematic in the midst of an emergency, as Californian officials are finding as blazes encroach on homes, forcing people to flee and increasing the suffering of those with respiratory problems.
Just how much a severe storm that hit eastern India in May contributed to the country’s Covid-19 crisis has still to be assessed, but the bad weather forcing 3 million people into crowded evacuation shelters without doubt furthered outbreaks.