Amnesty: Syria, Russia committed war crimes in anti-rebel push

Graffiti is seen on damaged building in war-torn Idlib province in northwest Syria, on April 23. Photo by Yahya Nemah/EPA-EFE

May 11 (UPI) -- Syrian government forces have committed a series of humanitarian violations that amount to "war crimes" in its campaign against rebels, Amnesty International said in an analysis Monday.

In a 40-page report titled "Nowhere is Safe For Us," the watchdog said Russian military and Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad carried out a "new wave of horrors" against civilians in the opposition-held northwestern part of the country from May 2019 through March.

The human rights group said it documented 18 attacks on medical facilities and schools in Idlib, northwestern Hama and western Aleppo provinces -- mostly via airstrikes carried out by Russian and Syrian forces. Syrian fighters were blamed in three ground attacks and two barrel bomb attacks targeting civilians.

In one incident highlighted in the report, 11 civilians including a doctor and at least 30 civilians were injured in a series of airstrikes near al-Shami hospital in Ariha in January.

RELATED Turkish, Russian forces patrol key Syria corridor to uphold cease-fire

"I felt so helpless," a surviving doctor said. "My friend and colleague dying, children and women screaming outside... We were all paralyzed."

"In an all-too-familiar pattern,attacks from the air and the ground repeatedly struck residential areas and crucial infrastructure," Amnesty said in its report. "Yet even by the standards of this calamitous nine-year crisis, the resulting displacement and humanitarian emergency were unprecedented."

Based on its investigations, Amnesty said the attacks were not directed at any specific military objective and violated international prohibitions of direct attack of civilians.

RELATED Erdogan, Putin praise de-escalation in Syria fighting

"These violations amount to war crimes," Amnesty concluded.

Assad's forces and Russian allies conducted an offensive in the region from December until a cease-fire in March. The fighting forced nearly 1 million civilians -- mostly women and children -- to flee toward the Turkish border.

The refugees packed makeshift shelters and camps set up in abandoned buildings and tens of thousands were forced to stay in open areas in freezing temperatures.

RELATED Erdogan threatens action to enforce cease-fire

Monday's report said humanitarian workers in northwest Syria are being hampered by the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions imposed by the largest group of rebels controlling the area, the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which has been designated a terrorist group by the U.N. Security Council.

Potato farmers reduce planting as demand plummets during pandemic



Farmers are cutting potato acres after demand for spuds plummeted during the coronavirus pandemic. Photo courtesy of Cal-Organic/Grimmway Farms

EVANSVILLE, Ind., May 11 (UPI) -- Potato farmers plan to plant fewer spuds this year after demand for America's most popular vegetable has plummeted during the coronavirus pandemic.

Early estimates show potato acres down about 10 percent, said Blair Richardson, CEO of Denver-based Potatoes USA, a potato marketing organization. But even with that reduction, industry leaders fear farmers will be unable to sell all their harvest come fall.

The problem developed because the closures of restaurants, schools and other food service operations created an unprecedented drop in potato consumption across the country.

"Sixty percent of our business is food service," said Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council, a Washington D.C.-based trade group. "When that market slammed shut, basically overnight, the supply chain for the potato industry started to back up. And now we're dealing with a huge oversupply."

RELATED Asparagus price bucks norm, spikes during coronavirus pandemic

More than $1 billion worth of potatoes is "backed up" in the processing system, Quarles said. Those are potatoes processors would have sold this spring, but couldn't.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture this week announced it would buy some $50 million in potatoes. While it's a positive move, Quarles said, it won't be nearly enough to clear out the backlog.

The industry has asked for larger government purchases -- and soon.

"We really need the government to come in and be the customer," Quarles said. "We need to get the 2019 crop out of the supply chain. Otherwise, growers are going to be impacted by this for years."

Farmers already are disking up planted fields or -- if they've not yet planted -- making last-minute switches to different crops.

"Processors operate year-round," said Mike Pink, a potato grower in Washington state. "They try to time it so they're just finishing up [processing the previous year's] crop right as the new crop starts to come in. Right now, we have this huge carryover crop that's getting extended into the 2020 crop. It's overlapping by months."

RELATED Farmers fear USDA's $19B in coronavirus aid won't 'scratch the surface'

Processors that contract directly with farmers have started canceling their orders, Pink said. In his case, his entire 2020 crop was rescinded.

"I already had everything planted," Pink said.

Pink last week made the difficult decision to disk under 240 acres of potatoes.

The decision guarantees he will lose the money he has already put in -- some $2,000 per acre. But, growing that crop will require more investment, roughly another $2,000 per acre. And with no buyer lined up this fall, it's possible he will be unable to sell them.

"That was a very, very tough decision to make," Pink said. "But, I just decided my first loss will be my smallest loss. I hope it was the right decision."

The sudden drop in demand for his potatoes has Pink -- like many growers -- fearing that this year may be his last.

"I think there will be some of us that don't survive, as farmers," Pink said. "I hope I'll be OK, but we don't know. I hope I survive this. I've been doing this since 1987. This is my life."

USDA announces another $470 million in purchases for food banks

People line up to receive bags of food from the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank in the parking lot of the Cow Palace in Daly City, Calif. on April 17. Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

EVANSVILLE, Ind., May 6 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a plan to purchase more food from struggling farmers and distribute it to food banks -- some $470 million this time.

The purchases, announced this week, will come in addition to the $3 billion the USDA pledged to buy farm products as part of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program that was announced April 17.

While across the country farmers welcomed the news, they were quick to warn that even when combined with the other aid programs, this won't be enough to save the rapidly declining industries.

"This is like a down payment," said Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council, a Washington D.C.-based trade group. "Clearly, more is going to be needed."

The USDA intends to use this latest $470 million on more than a dozen specific commodities, including potatoes. Other items include asparagus, chicken, dairy, various types of fish, orange juice, pears, pork, prunes, raisins, strawberries, sweet potatoes, tart cherries and turkey.

Many of these items have had their markets suddenly disappear during the coronavirus pandemic as a result of the closure of restaurants, schools and other food service providers.

"Sixty percent of the potato industry went to food service," Quarles said. "When that market slammed shut, basically overnight, the supply chain for the potato industry started to back up. And now we're dealing with a huge oversupply."

More than $1 billion worth of potatoes are sitting in processing plants and in farm storage with nowhere to go, and the backup keeps growing, Quarles said.

The latest USDA purchase plan sets aside $50 million for potatoes.

Other farming industries are experiencing similar distress from the sudden loss of food service.

Across the country, dairy farmers are dumping milk once bound for schoolchildren, while fresh produce growers are tilling vegetables no longer needed by restaurants into the soil and livestock producers are euthanizing animals they can't sell for slaughter.

"Anything helps," said Donovan Johnson, president of the Minnesota-based Northern Plains Potato Growers Association. "We're grateful for anything that could help relieve the catastrophic damage that's going on. But this is total devastation."

ANOTHER BIBLICAL PLAGUE
Giant Asian gypsy moth threatens trees in Washington

Voracious Asian giant gypsy moths, whose caterpillars can defoliate entire trees, have been discovered in Washington state, the governor announced. Photo courtesy of Washington State Department of Agriculture

DENVER, May 11 (UPI) -- After a warning about the bee-killing Asian giant hornet, Washington state is bracing for invasion of another supersize invasive insect. This one, the Hokkaido gypsy moth, can destroy trees.

Gov. Jay Inslee issued an emergency proclamation last week, warning that the moths have been discovered in parts of Snohomish County, which is northeast of Seattle.

"This imminent danger of infestation seriously endangers the agricultural and horticultural industries of the state of Washington and seriously threatens the economic well-being and quality of life of state residents," Inslee said in a statement.

Hokkaido gypsy moths never have been observed before in the United States. They are exotic pests that can do "widespread damage" when hundreds of voracious caterpillars hatch, Karla Salp, a spokeswoman for the Washington Department of Agriculture, told UPI.

"We see European gypsy moths every year, but these Asian moths are more dangerous because they can fly up to 20 miles and their caterpillars can eat a broader range of host plants," Salp said.

If the pest becomes established in the state, it would threaten forest ecosystems and could lead to quarantine restrictions on commercial lumber and horticulture, state experts fear.

The governor's proclamation allows state pest-control agencies to a spray special pesticide from airplanes on the insects.

Washington state pest agents will be treating moths with a soil bacteria called Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki or Btk. The bacteria is harmless to humans, pets, birds, fish and bees, the agency said.

Female moths, up to 3 1/2 inches long, can lay up to 500 eggs that hatch into brightly colored, hairy caterpillars with maroon and gray dots.

The caterpillars sometimes are mistaken for webworms or tent caterpillars, both native to Washington, Salp said.

In 2017, European gypsy moth caterpillars defoliated one-third of the state of Massachusetts.

In 2018, the state lost about one-quarter of its hardwood trees, including three-quarters of its oak trees, due to gypsy moth infestations, the Massachusetts agriculture department said.

South Korea sends 2 million face masks to U.S.

TRUMP WAREHOUSING AND SELLING MASKS AS EMOLUMENTS
By Kim Hyung-hwan, UPI News Korea

A U.S. cargo flight carrying 2 million protective masks is set to depart from the Incheon International Airport early Monday. Photo courtesy of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs

SEOUL, May 11 (UPI) -- South Korea has sent 2 million protective face masks to the United States for fighting the COVID-19 novel coronavirus.

A cargo flight departed early Monday, carrying face masks that will be provided to U.S. medical staff, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The ministry said that the delivery is a follow-up measure after the telephone talks between the two countries' heads of state late March.

U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed to join hands in fighting the pandemic.

"We hope that the two countries will be able to overcome the common challenge of COVID-19," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Still, exports of face masks are strictly banned in South Korea, and the police have arrested and charged smugglers of antiviral gear, including masks. Only shipments that are designated as humanitarian aid are allowed.

Korea's Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs also said Thursday that it will provide half a million masks to U.S. veterans of the Korean War.

Masks were scarce in supply in South Korea in February and March, so the Korean government responded by rationing individual purchases to just two masks per week. Back then, the daily number of COVID-19 infections was in the hundreds.

The decreasing number of infections eased the supply shortage over the past weeks, although current numbers indicate a new rise due to cases linked to a Seoul nightclub outbreak.

US Environmental groups sue Interior over NPS and BLM appointments

Environmental groups filed a lawsuit Monday against Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt's order last week extending appointments to two officials who have not been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. File Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI | License Photo
May 11 (UPI) -- Environmental protection groups filed a lawsuit Monday against the U.S. Department of Interior over appointments of National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management leaders.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Western Watersheds Project.

The suit seeks to vacate Interior Secretary David Bernhardt's May 5 order to extend appointments of NPS Deputy Director David Vela and BLM Deputy Director William Pendley by one month.

Neither has been nominated or confirmed by the the U.S. Senate or appointed by President Donald Trump as "acting" director under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, the suit says.

The groups argue that both are unqualified for their positions, which they have held for months through repeated extensions without any nominee before the U.S. Senate to replace them.

Furthermore, they argued that the extensions also violated the 210-day maximum period they could have stayed in office as acting directors under the the FVRA.

The BLM manages 247 million acres of public land and the NPS is responsible for protecting and preserving 85 million acres, which together makeup almost one-seventh of the nation's total land area, according to a joint statement from PEER and WWP. Together, Pendley and Vela have been in charge of thousands of agency staff and overseen tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded expenditures.

Interior Department spokeswoman Conner Swanson called the lawsuit "baseless," according to The Hill.

"As we continue to address this national emergency, these special interest groups would rather seek to divert critical taxpayer resources from a baseless lawsuit and attempt to remove the leaders of critical government bureaus," Swanson said. "Mr. Pendley and Mr. Vela are providing crucial leadership, and the Department is grateful for their service."

Pendley was first appointed in July with no prior land management experience and his appointment has continued for more the nine months through extensions, according to the suit.

"These serial, 'temporary' appointments for Pendley to head the nation's largest public lands agency are not only irresponsible but illegal, as well," Western Watersheds Project Executive Director Erik Molvar said in a joint statement. "William Perry Pendley has little chance of surviving the scrutiny of a Senate confirmation process, as he has been a public lands extremist, dedicated to selling off public lands or handing over public resources to mineral and livestock industries throughout his career."

As a lawyer for over three decades, Pendley sued federal agencies in "an ultra-conservative, anti-environmental, legal foundation," according to the environmental protection groups.

PEER sought records last July "documenting the basis for his appointment" but it "has not produced a single document" despite a November lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act, the statement shows.

Vela, whose NPS appointment began in September and continued through more than seven months of extensions "has been criticized for chaotic and inconsistent decisions on closing parks during the COVID-19 outbreak, which likely increased risks for both staff and visitors," the joint statement said. "He is now under the gun to assess the National Park System's capacity to avoid dangerous overcrowding and new spikes of infection as parks reopen."

This is not the first time advocacy groups have filed suit to remove appointments under the Trump administration. Earlier this year a federal judge ruled that Ken Cuccinelli's appointment as acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was illegal after advocacy groups sued.

The day after the judgment, Cuccinelli said that he would file an appeal.

KXL
Judge mostly upholds ruling against pipeline permit
Protesters unveil an inflatable mock pipeline during a protest against the KXL pipeline at the Reflecting Pool on the Nationals Mall in Washington, D.C., on April 24, 2014. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

May 11 (UPI) -- A federal judge on Monday ruled largely in favor of upholding an earlier court's decision to prevent the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from using a fast-track approval permit to construct the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline without conducting new analysis of its environmental impact.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Brian Morris upholds an April 15 decision in support of a coalition of conservation and landowner groups who challenged the U.S. Army Corps, TC Energy, the state of Montana and American Gas Association over the Trump administration's approval of Nationwide Permit 12, a blanket approval for construction of similar projects concerning water crossings.

The coalition argued that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to properly analyze the project's effects on endangered species when the permit was approved.

On Monday, Morris narrowed the original ruling, however, to allow some projects to proceed.

"The Trump administration has repeatedly violated the law in their relentless pursuit of seeing Keystone XL and other dirty fossil fuel infrastructure built, and we're glad to see the court refuse to bend to pressure from the administration not to hold them accountable," Sierra Club Senior Attorney Doug Hayes said in a statement. "Keystone XL would devastate communities, wildlife and clean drinking water. Today's ruling is yet another victory in the fight to ensure that it is never built."

The controversial Keystone pipeline project is expected to run more than 1,200 miles from Steel City, Neb., into the Canadian province of Alberta and deliver 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day into the United States.

Actor Jim Carrey ridiculed President Donald Trump for making the Grim Reaper jealous with his latest painting.

“Grim Reaper officially jealous of Trump and GOP’s ability to double the death toll,” the piece said, with a picture of Trump and the Grim Reaper with a raised middle finger.

pic.twitter.com/fEhggYsfxn

— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) May 11, 2020

NoelCaslerComedy

@CaslerNoel

·

May 10

Dude, you literally rent out the entire 20th floor of Trump Tower to China’s largest bank. Your daughter has more Chinese Patents than she does pairs of shoes and your company borrowed 200m from China. You do more business in China than most Chinese people do.

@realDonaldTrump

Quote Tweet

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

· May 10

.@CBS and their show, @60Minutes, are doing everything within their power, which is far less today than it was in the past, to defend China and the horrible Virus pandemic that was inflicted on the USA and the rest of the World. I guess they want to do business in China!

Trump is trying to pull his biggest con yet with the US economy — before everything falls apart

 May 11, 2020 By Amanda Marcotte, Salon- Commentary


Donald Trump thinks he can trick American voters into believing it’s a good thing that one in six workers is out of a job. That’s according to Nancy Cook at Politico, who reports that the mood in the White House was one of jubilation at hearing that the unemployment rate had soared to 14.7% — the highest since the Great Depression. That mood reflected “happiness that the figure wasn’t as high as it could have been,” Cook writes.


This allows Trump to use a strategy he often rolls out to trick the public into seeing his failures as a win: “Throwing out a huge number — like a future 25 percent unemployment rate, or 2 million deaths from the coronavirus — can, in turn, make lower figures seem like a relief.”

It’s a trick that Trump no doubt developed during his notorious business career, when he often tried to trick investors and banks into backing one failing venture after another by using trickery or outright lying, at least until the whole thing collapsed and he skated away, his personal assets intact, while the business went bankrupt.

Trump is trying to handle the American economy much the same way he handled his many failed business ventures: By lying about the numbers to make things seem better than they are, while moving money around with accounting tricks in hopes of fooling investors — or voters, in this case — into sticking around just a little longer, buying Trump time to figure out how he can escape personal consequences when the whole thing inevitably collapses.

In Trump’s business, that was a matter of driving his companies into bankruptcy while minimizing his personal losses. When it comes to the American economy, Trump plans to bamboozle the voters into thinking things are better, just long enough to get re-elected in November. After that, no doubt, he could care less if the entire economy completely collapses.

Trump has decided his path to re-election is to present himself as the savior of the American economy, fighting against the evil progressives who overreacted to the coronavirus pandemic with draconian economic lockdowns. But no one should be mistaken: This is a lie, like almost everything Trump says.

In reality, Trump isn’t the economy’s savior at all. He’s the main reason the economic devastation in this country is so bad in the first place. His current actions are only likely to make things worse, especially in the long run.

Trump may want to blame the current economic devastation on state governors, on China or on public health officials, but really, the blame lays largely with him. As Tim Dickinson writes in Rolling Stone, the lengthy stay-at-home orders are a direct result of Trump’s refusal to take the virus seriously and implement mitigation measures before things spiraled out of control.

That failure was twofold. First, the White House advised Americans, back in February, not to change anything about their daily lives. If we had all adopted social distancing then, there’s a strong chance that the viral spread could have been checked, preventing the more extensive stay-at-home orders that are currently laying waste to the retail sector and threatening the long-term survival of many businesses. But Trump, forever a short-term thinker, was incapable of adopting shutdown policies that might have avoided far longer and more stringent stay-at-home orders down the road. He bought himself a few weeks in February, but the price we’re paying is the loss of April and May — and probably many months into the future.

Second, and more important, the administration didn’t let the public have the coronavirus tests needed to safely reopen the economy. As Dickinson writes:

Blind to the virus’s penetration and unable to target mitigation where it was needed, the administration and state governors had to resort to the blunt instrument of shuttering the economy, says Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. And the lack of testing kept us in limbo. “Our economy is shut down because we still do not have adequate testing,” Jha says. “We have been woefully behind from the beginning of this pandemic.”

Trump could have saved the economy, but he didn’t, due to his laziness and short-sightedness, not to mention his misplaced confidence that he can BS his way through any situation. That 15% unemployment figure is hardly a victory — it’s a sign of Trump’s utter failures as a leader.

Nor can the administration claim ignorance. The Trump administration knows that adequate testing can prevent the need for draconian quarantines. Top administration officials — including Vice President Mike Pence, HHS Secretary Alex Azar and Surgeon General Jerome Adams — are not going into quarantine, despite exposure to the virus. They get to move about freely because they have access to regular testing, in some cases on a daily basis. But the rest of the country, thanks to Trump’s negligence, is deprived of the testing that we need in order to be safe, so we’re stuck at home.

All of this is likely to get worse. Trump continues to be short-sighted and largely focused on lying his way through this crisis, and has successfully pressured large parts of the country to “reopen” without remotely adequate precautions or testing. So it’s quite likely we’ll have another round of what happened in the late winter and early spring: The virus starts to spread rapidly, forcing more shutdowns and layoffs, drawing out the economic devastation far longer than would have been necessary under a more rational plan.

Trump isn’t interested in an actual economic recovery. He intends to use accounting tricks and lies to create the illusion of a healthy economy just long enough to drag him across the finish line in November. That’s evident in the White House proposal to raid Social Security for money to stimulate consumer spending in the here and now. As the Washington Post reported, “The proposal calls for giving Americans $10,000 upfront in exchange for curbing their federal retirement benefits, such as Social Security.”

This is tantamount to sacrificing the long-term economic health of the nation in order to inject just enough cash into the economy to get Trump to November, at which point he’ll almost certainly dump the American economy, just like he dumped every other business venture once it got too hard. Make no mistake, if a bunch of people find their retirement money drying up years or decades from now because of this cockamamie scheme, that will damage the economy big time. Trump, of course, does not care about the economic future of anyone but himself. He cares about getting to an Electoral College victory on Nov. 3, after which he can quit even pretending to care.

There are other sources of cash the U.S. government could tap that wouldn’t strip money from the retirement funds of ordinary Americans. For instance, the government could borrow trillions of dollars at the near-zero interest rate currently offered by the Federal Reserve and, when the crisis is over, pay it back by repealing the multi-trillion-dollar tax cut that Trump gave the wealthiest Americans early in his presidency. Indeed, that move would likely bolster the nation’s economic health in the long run, by getting more money out of the hands of the wealthy few and pushing it out into the larger economy.

Trump doesn’t actually want a healthy economy, any more than he wants Americans to have healthy bodies. He wants to create the illusion of both, just long enough so that voters — like the suckers who invested in Trump’s businesses only to see their money go up in smoke — re-up him for another term. Then he can keep on grifting and dodging legal trouble for his myriad crimes, which are his only important goals, while the rest of us watch thousands of people die and the economy fall apart around us.

White House banner mocked online with crafty photoshopping

May 11, 2020 By Sarah K. Burris- Commentary


The White House hung banners bragging about their testing successes.

“We have met the moment, and we have prevailed,” Trump announced.

When asked about the possibility of testing Americans as they go back to work, Trump explained that we’re close to being able to test all Americans.

“When will it be that Americans across the country will get tested every day as they go back to work?” asked the reporter.

“Very soon. I mean, really, very soon,” the president announced.

While the president said testing is a “very big important function,” it comes just one week after the president claimed testing is “somewhat overrated.”

In response to the banners flying high at the White House, those with Photoshopping skills took to Twitter to express their own thoughts for the banner, capturing what the president was really saying.

You can see those below

Photoshoppers have already fixed Trump’s sign.#TrumpIsALaughingStock pic.twitter.com/PUSwoQY2Xo
— Andrew Wortman (@AmoneyResists) May 11, 2020

Bold new coronavirus messaging from the Trump White House 
pic.twitter.com/Uh9kS66kLW
— Adam Blickstein (@AdamBlickstein) May 11, 2020


Fixed your sign, @realDonaldTrump.#WeHavePrevailed#AmericaFirst pic.twitter.com/smoLF1Vq95
— Zac Petkanas (@Zac_Petkanas) May 11, 2020


Some were more overt about it:
It's another banner day at the White House. https://t.co/wZ0HzMUDN8 pic.twitter.com/0bHQ0g4KUr
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) May 11, 2020


TRUMP, 5/11/20: "We have met the moment, and we have prevailed."
BUSH, 5/1/03: pic.twitter.com/W9SGq1lY0a
Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) May 11, 2020

Coronavirus hasn’t killed globalisation – it proves why we need it

May 6, 2020 

In just a few months, COVID-19 travelled from China to more than 200 other countries, and has now killed more than 200,000 people. Some claim the pandemic sounds the death knell for globalisation – but in fact, it reveals the disasters that can arise when nations try to go it alone.

Examining where the world went right or wrong in its COVID-19 response may help mitigate another global crisis, climate change.

In the face of coronavirus’ global sweep, most national governments acted independently from each other, rather than in unison. Just as in global action on climate change, the responses of nations to the health crisis has largely been ad hoc, piecemeal and, in many cases, lethally ineffective.

Read more: Here are 5 ways to flatten the climate change curve while stuck at home

My recent research as an international business scholar has focused on finding the common threads of national cultures. My research shows that people around the world have many needs and aspirations in common, such as good health, education and employment. These are best fulfilled when world leaders work jointly with a global, rather than a national, mindset.

So let’s look at the lessons COVID-19 has taught the world, and how this might help the global effort to curb climate change.

Locals in Tuvalu, a Pacific island nation vulnerable to climate change. Like coronavirus, global warming does not respect borders. Mick Tsikas/AAP

Disunity is death

Following the COVID-19 outbreak in China, many countries imposed unilateral travel bans on Chinese arrivals, against advice from the World Health Organization.

The bans mirror the response of many nations during the west African Ebola epidemic which began in 2013. Research has shown that those travel and trade restrictions acted as a disincentive for nations to report outbreaks.

There are undoubtedly legitimate questions over China’s reporting on the coronavirus outbreak. However, travel bans may have made China more defensive and less willing to share vital information with the rest of the world.

Read more: Here are 5 ways to flatten the climate change curve while stuck at home

A shortage of vital supplies also exposed fractures in international cooperation. For example, France and Germany banned the export of medical equipment such as face masks, and the United States was accused of intercepting a shipment of medical supplies en route to Germany.

But where the world has cooperated to stop the spread of COVID-19, the benefits have been obvious. Collaboration between global health scientists has helped identify the virus’ genome sequence, and grow the virus in the lab.

Similarly on climate change, international unity is required if the world is to keep temperatures below 2℃ warming this century. But international climate meetings frequently end in disunity and despair. Meanwhile, global emissions creep ever higher.

Medical supplies from China being unloaded in East Timor. International cooperation is vital during the pandemic. ANTONIO DASIPARU/EPA

The butterfly effect

One person practising social distancing during the pandemic might think their effect is negligible. But coronavirus is highly infectious: on one estimate, a single person with coronavirus could eventually infect 59,000 others.

Similarly, many countries seek to avoid responsibility for taking climate action by claiming their contribution to the global problem is small. The Australian government, for example, repeatedly points out it contributes just 1.3% to the world’s emissions total.

But on a per capita basis, Australia is one of the world’s highest emitters. And as a rich, developed nation, we must be seen to be taking action on cutting emissions if poorer nations are expected to follow suit. So actions Australia takes will have major global consequences.

The developed world has a moral obligation to act on climate change, regardless of its emissions contribution. Federico Gambarini/EPA

Act quickly

In the two months it took the virus to spread from China and become a global pandemic, other nations could have readied themselves by amassing test kits, ventilators and personal protective equipment. But many nations did not adequately prepare.

For example the US was slow to implement a widespread testing regime, and Japan did not declare a nationwide state of emergency until mid-April.

Read more: From the bushfires to coronavirus, our old 'normal' is gone forever. So what's next?

Of course the world has had a far longer time to adapt to and mitigate climate change. The time lag between emissions and their consequences is years, even centuries. There has been ample opportunity to take progressive and thoughtful corrective action against climate change. Instead, the crisis has been met with complacency.

As the COVID-19 experience has shown, the longer we delay action on climate mitigation, the more global, costly, and lethal the consequences.

US President Donald Trump, right, with Vice President Mike Pence. The US response to coronavirus has been criticised as too slow. Doug Mills/EPA

Challenges ahead

As others have noted, a major supplier of swabs used for coronavirus testing is based in Italy, and a German company is a primary supplier of chemicals needed for the tests. Many counties rely on foreign suppliers for ventilators, and an Indian firm – the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer – says once a COVID-19 vaccine is ready for mass production, it will supply large volumes to the world, at low cost.

It’s clear that international cooperation is critical for effective mass testing and treatment for the virus. Nations must work together to improve production and distribution, and resources must be shared.

So too is cooperation needed to deal with the worldwide economic downturn. The global recovery will be long and slow if nations adopt sovereign mindsets, putting up barriers to protect their own economies.

With the coronavirus as with climate change, working together is best way to secure humanity’s safety, health and well-being.

Author
Sunil Venaik
Associate Professor of International Business, The University of Queensland