The other war for survival still rages

chart, but every day climate change is facilitating the circumstances for mass human fatalities.

Wildfires, droughts, intense storms. Reduced food and water supplies, which will exacerbate hunger, disease, violence, and migration.

They used to be long-term risks, not any more.

The UN says if all countries don’t make significant changes over the next 10 years, then the underlying climate nightmare will be upon us.

Climate change may feel far away when you’re self-isolating in a house in Te Awamutu, but it’s very real for millions of people in the developing world.

These countries are where the first and worst effects are being felt – a terrible injustice, given that they are least responsible for causing it.

On a brighter note, the experience of responding to a global threat may give the world something of a ‘‘muscle memory’’ when it concentrates fully on tackling climate change once more.

Among the very real horror, Covid is teaching us how people and governments can get their act together if they really want to; that in an often cruel world, collective will can prevail; that people power is real.

Once the smoke of Covid clears and we descend the alert levels, there will be many experiences, lessons and even phrases which will prove useful. We can talk about ‘‘flattening’’ the climate curve, and ‘‘eradicating’’ emissions growth.

And we can be confident about asking our governments to think boldly and expansively to protect our futures.

The neoliberal argument against society acting collectively via the government is dead. As a Financial Times editorial put it recently: ‘‘Radical reforms – reversing the prevailing policy direction of the last four decades – will need to be put on the table. Governments will have to accept a more active role in the economy.’’

Transforming agriculture, electrifying transport, embracing wind and solar power. We can do this.

Best of all we can start now. If we are going to spend $20 billion stimulating the economy, let’s spend a bunch of that money on a Green Covid Response – infrastructure projects that hasten us towards a zero carbon future – rather than landing us slap bang in the middle of another existential crisis.

Once the smoke of Covid clears and we descend the alert levels, there will be many experiences, lessons and even phrases which will prove useful.