‘I Don’t Want This To Be My Reality’: How The Pandemic Is A Preview For Climate Change

Life may feel like it’s on pause because of COVID-19. But climate change isn’t paused. How is the pandemic affecting the climate and the people working on solutions?

Catalina Garzon-Galviz is a senior health educator with the Public Health Institute’s Tracking California program, an organization that collects health and environment data. She notes that while more people are turning to the outdoors for recreation, and pollution from car commutes is down, “in communities close to industrial quarters where essential industries like refineries operate, we still see hotspots of pollution.”

Dr. Linda Rudolph from the Center for Climate Change and Health at the Public Health Institute agrees and notes that wildfire season can make things worse. If you have underlying conditions like asthma or heart disease, wildfire smoke is particularly dangerous. “That’s also one of the contributing factors to the worse outcomes with COVID in black and brown communities,” Rudolph notes, because people of color are more likely to live in neighborhoods with more air pollution, like near a freeway, heavy industry, or commercial port.

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Originally published by KALW