Yet only one crisis has inspired widespread, drastic action from countries across the globe.
Coronavirus is proving that it is possible to make dramatic changes and economic sacrifices to save lives.
“It actually hurts because it shows that at the national, or international level, if we need to take action we can. So why haven’t we for climate? And not with words, with real actions,” said Donna Green, associate professor at University of New South Wales’s Climate Change Research Centre.
So why haven’t governments done more to protect their citizens from the impact of climate change?
Climate change is a global health crisis
The climate crisis is also a global health emergency.
The novel coronavirus, discovered in China in mid-December, has so far killed about 8,000 people, and infected around 200,000 in more than 100 countries, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking cases reported by the WHO and additional sources.
The virus’ impact has been sudden and dramatic.
The toll of climate crisis is slow and steady — but no less deadly.
Part of the difference in the response to the two crises is that, for many people, the virus is more of an immediate, tangible threat. The virus is infecting people now and is the undisputed source of their illness.
“You can put a virus particle down a microscope and draw a picture of it, it looks scary. You can explain how in medical science, you can deal with that particular virus, develop a vaccine and take steps to respond,” said Green.
Climate crisis is not a virus. The illnesses it causes and dangers it poses come through a third party — pollution, a flood, a drought — giving climate crisis deniers an opportunity to argue they were caused by other factors.
And for many people not on the front lines, climate crisis feels like a future problem.
“In terms of their lives, and this being an existential crisis, and a threat, I don’t think that comes off as immediately as something like a pandemic,” said Miro Korenha, co-founder of Our Daily Planet, a Washington DC-based environmental news platform. “They hear climate change is something that might be off in the future, maybe it won’t hit their community.”
Acting quickly
That lesson of preparedness applies to the climate crisis.
Countries need to act quickly to mitigate against future worst-case climate scenarios, rather than waiting for the disaster to peak before acting.
They can do this by reducing emissions, developing green technology and implementing effective climate policies.
We know what must be done — both to stop the spread of coronavirus and to fight climate change — but many countries that produce the most heat-trapping gases are waiting until it is too late.
Just as in some places, people have been slow to adopt the social distancing doctors are advising to fight the spread of the virus, not enough countries, especially those that produce the most heat-trapping gases, are taking significant action to slash emissions.
We have the tools
Travel bans have grounded flights and removed the ability to travel — a big contributor to heat-trapping emissions. And working from home experiments are showing that not everyone needs to travel to the office.
But climate scientists say that adapting to climate change does not require radical shutdowns — the technology needed to reduce emissions already exists. Renewable energy sources are a cost-effective alternative to fossil fuels, and making the switch makes economic sense.
“It’s absolutely possible to completely transform our country and world economies in a way that’s sustainable, in a way that would mitigate the risk,” Green said.
Getting political
So if we have the tools, what’s stopping action?
Scientists say politics plays a bit part in decision making.
This ignorance or denial of the science is hampering the response to both the climate crises and coronavirus.
“If the President can say something that’s contrary to what the government’s top scientists are saying that’s a really difficult and dangerous predicament,” said Our Daily Planet’s Korenha. “The real danger here is that people stop trusting information [from] government scientists.”
The need for government transparency and readily available public information is vital in stopping the coronavirus from overrunning countries.
The media also plays a big part in making sure the public gets the information it needs in a way they understand.
The coronavirus pandemic has taken over the 24-hour news cycle, with broadcast media running almost non-stop coverage in many countries. Viewers and readers are hungry for up-to-date coronavirus information to make informed decisions about their lives.
“If climate even got one tenth of (coronavirus) coverage, how that might change public perception, how people might realize that this is a threat to them?” Korenha said.
Pivoting to the future
But this won’t last forever. The emergency measures are short term — until outbreaks are managed or a vaccine is developed.
The fight against the climate crisis is a long-term problem that requires completely rethinking many of our industries and ways of life. But the not responding will lead to a far worse alternative.
Coronavirus has shown that in order to avert the worst impacts of a global crisis, world leaders need to come together to make bold change. That means enacting policies, investing in innovative green technology, switching to clean energy and getting the public to change their daily habits.
The world has been given a trial run in global crisis management. It shouldn’t waste it.
CNN’s Andrew Kann contributed.