Introduction

At first glance the COVID-19 pandemic seems like a gift towards minimizing climate change and pollution, as the world was forced into an economic halt.

It is a shock how quick the pandemic seems to have dropped air pollution and cleared skies. According to the first quarter of the Global Energy Review of 2020 economic restrictions decreased global demand for coal by 8%, global demand of oil by 5% and increased the demand for renewable energy by 1.5% (IEA, 2020). Matched with a decline in air traffic, “flight activity has dropped more than 80% in major hubs” (Lombrana & Warren, 2020), as well as land traffic, it is no wonder people are physically and visually seeing effects of the pandemic on the environment.

Every stride towards a cleaner earth during this time is temporary. If global lockdowns continue the IEA predicts that “energy demand will drop by 6% in 2020” (IEA, 2020) a decline that hasn’t been seen in 70 years. If lockdowns lift and remain lifted, economies will restart and we will not see a 6% decrease in energy demand.

From the global pandemic we can easily discuss and emphasize how amazing it would be if societies instead of going back to business as usual, made drastic changes to reduce pollution and emissions like we have seen these past few months. But even if we were to rebuild in a more environmentally conscious way, there are too many social inequalities and prejudices unearthed in the crisis that we need to fix first.

It is crucial to discuss and understand global inequalities brought to light during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding environmental issues. Hopefully the pandemic can be used to highlight these issues and change people's opinions on how to approach the environment.

With the number of individuals currently needing financial aid, some unable to pay rent, buy food, losing their jobs or risking their health for income it is clear that our economic and political system can no longer be relied upon. Especially when certain communities are facing detrimental consequences more than others. The same inequalities are present with impacts of climate change and discussing environmental friendly lifestyles. COVID-19 and environmental prejudices are interwoven. The people that suffered most because of the COVID-19 pandemic will also suffer the most in a climate change crisis or be blamed for causing it.

Re-Building Urban Environments

The pandemic revealed vulnerabilities in city systems and inequalities among neighbourhoods demonstrated by uneven case numbers.

If we look at changes made in Toronto in order to promote a pandemic safe area most of the effort is aimed towards the city's core by widening sidewalks, closing roads and creating more bike paths. The Kensington-Chinatown neighborhood with only 79 reported cases (City of Toronto, 2020) now has ‘quiet street’ areas so cyclists and pedestrians can safely distance themselves from each other (Spurr, 2020).

Yet not much has been done for one of Toronto’s worst hit neighborhoods, Glenfield- Jane Heights, which has 367 reported cases (City of Toronto, 2020). According to Toronto’s 2020 census, the Glenfield-Jane Heights neighborhood has a population of lower income, fewer University educated people, higher unemployment rate and larger immigration rate than the rest of Toronto (City of Toronto, 2018).

It is apparent that lower income neighborhoods outside the city core are harder hit by the pandemic. There could be many reasons as to the exact reason why, but there has not been much research on the topic so far. I think the most important takeaway from imbalances in COVID 19 cases is to further understand imbalances in Toronto neighborhoods based on socioeconomic factors. For example, Lower income areas face inequalities in access to public transportation (Allen, 2018), inhibiting access to jobs but also demonstrating a disproportion in environmentally conscious actions. More bike lanes/paths and more accessible transportation are important to reduce emissions in urban areas. Yet actions to create accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists during the pandemic have not been focusing on lower income areas. If the pandemic is used to make Toronto an increasingly environmentally conscious city, this effort needs to be extended into lower income areas. We cannot rebuild our cities after COVID-19 and ignore certain communities in the reconstruction. Emphasis needs to be given to neighborhoods impacted the most by COVID 19.

Cultural Intolerance and the Environment

A lot of hatred and racism during the pandemic arose towards Asian communities and certain foods they eat. There was a lot of backlash on wet markets and consuming certain animals (Retamal, 2020). Similar racism occurred during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa and criticism of bush meat (Hogenboom, 2014). I’m not trying to say that these ways of getting food are blameless, but that they are no worse than factory farms in America, which also increase risk of disease (Richards & Richards, 2011).

In the west there is a very strong notion of good food vs. bad food. Cattle and poultry are seen as acceptable livestock but consuming animals not commonly eaten in western countries is deemed “exotic” and heavily criticized. The media and people making racist remarks fail to educate their audiences on zoonotic diseases not linked to developing areas or “exotic” animals. Zoonotic diseases don’t just arise from “exotic” animals, some of the most common livestock in Canada can cause disease as well such as swine flu or salmonella.

The world health organization highlights several current environmental changes that affect the occurrence of infectious diseases in humans including agriculture intensification, urbanization, deforestation and increased temperature and precipitation (WHO, 2003). We still don’t know the exact impact climate change will have on infectious diseases but there is a possibility outbreaks could increase. I fear that in the future, if there are more frequent outbreaks due to climate change, certain nations will be held responsible and penalized because of what they consume while Western nations receive little criticism.

All we have to do is look at racism involved with COVID 19 and climate change blame that is assigned to certain countries like China and India just for having large populations to realize that eco-facism is a serious issue.

Hopefully in the future we can concentrate on globally improving health and the environment without singling out a country.

Conclusion

The pandemic brought a lot of negative ideas and beliefs towards food and disease in a very racist way. While at the same time vulnerable communities have suffered from high COVID cases while being ignored.

It is obvious many media outlets want to concentrate on positive environmental changes due to the pandemic. If we focus solely on these changes we will be ignoring crucial steps to minimizing climate change. COVID 19 exposed global inequalities that need to be fixed, not forgotten.