Coronavirus and ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’

(Versión en español abajo)

Since the last few weeks, we are all confronted with the impacts of the pandemic caused by the COVID-19. There is a lot of discussion on how the Coronavirus can be fought, which measures should the governments implement, how effective are they going to be, how long will the measures last, etc. In about two months since the implementation of measures, China and other Asian countries (like South Korea, Japan, Singapore) were able to control the pandemic in their territory and now they can finally take a breath and slowly some of their citizens are returning to their normal life. Should we expect same results in the Western countries?

Hopefully. But it will be not surprising if Asian countries (China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore) prove to have achieved a faster control of the epidemic than what may happen in Western countries. One key of success might be within the ‘culture’ of Asian countries. There, the ‘collective’ is more important than the ‘individual’.

Compensate your flying habits

If you want to keep flying …

Air traffic is especially harmful to the environment. According to myclimate a flight from Zurich to Barcelona emits 408 kilograms of CO2; a flight from Zurich to Vancouver 3131 kg-CO2. What do we need to change daily to compensate the emissions of this flight?

To help with the calculation, it’s possible to visit the website eingutertag.org, in which its shown the number of “climate points” generated by different consumption habits, like eating, heating, electricity, mobility, etc. For example, the round trip Zurich-Vancouver measures 16,616 km, representing 81.858 “climate points”. Compensating its CO2 emissions requires among other things, reduce or quit meat consumption, use public transportation or bicycle, savings daily household energy consumption, etc.

CO2 emission to attend the climate change conference

How much CO2 is emitted to attend the UN climate change conference?

I know I may be a little bit skeptical and hard demanding, but I always wonder the real positive outcome from the yearly negotiations in the UN climate change conferences (COPs). For me, it always sounds like the same, Europe committing
to
reduce CO2 by substituting the use of oil with renewable energies; US, India and China trying to refuse to a boundary commitment; the developing countries demanding more “flexibility” and support to allow their development …

But I do not want to discuss about the outcomes from these conferences, but just wonder, if more than 150 State representatives (presidents, ministers…) travel to the conference -of course on an airplane-,  how much CO2 does the attendance to the climate change conference produce then? which is its footprint?

Ecological footprint

The measurement of our impact in the planet

According to the Global Footprint Network, ecological footprint is the measure of how much area of biologically productive land and water an individual, population or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates, using prevailing technology and resource management practices. The Ecological Footprint is usually measured in global hectares.” (Global Footprint Network, 2015). The footprint generally refers to the consumption footprint and according to this definition, each in individual according to its consumption habit (use of water, electricity, heating, transportation, kind of food, etc) requires a space of land and water and therefore produces an impact in the planet, which can be higher or smaller according to this consumption behaviour.