The difference between climate change action and pandemic world war effort is located in the measurability of the crisis. Infections can be measured, and pointed interventions can be applied. Climate change to be tackled has to be local first and global later. We miss the elephant in the room, COVID-19 can inflect an Eastern European immigrant, who will be ‘asked to leave’ after Brexit as the British Prime Minister. In a climate change context, the habitus of the privileged wards them against the manifestations of climate change impacts. The virus cuts across privilege to a large extent, and the rich fear being sick. The corporate class fears the virus as it is leaving a carnage. The language has changed as McKinsey boss has called for a shift from the Just in Time Economy to the Resilience Economy. This itself is an epistemic shift.
The migrant worker in Delhi, is fearful of very little to lose, he does not have much to start with anyway. It is the wealthy and the middle class who will hit the hardest as economies contract, comfy jobs evaporate as companies look to avenues for revenues for a post pandemic era.
Change Thinker 