The world is in the midst of a struggle, the likes of which we haven’t seen in over 100 years. Great chunks of the global economy are shut down as the coronavirus sweeps across the planet.

One of the main tests being used to determine if someone might be infected is taking his or her temperature. A fever is a good indicator that additional tests are necessary.

The planet has been running a fever for 50 years, and its symptoms of illness have become more and more pronounced. Flooding, drought, wildfires, bleaching coral and melting ice are all increasing in both frequency and intensity. But except for mitigation here and there, we’ve been prescribing “two aspirin and call me in a few years.”

While the coronavirus pandemic is a horrible way to get there, we have a chance now to rethink how we lessen the planet’s temperature. As Congress debates the next stimulus package to restart our economy, we should be asking it not to prop up our fossil fuel energy system but to invest heavily in the future, which must be based on green energy. Incentives to redesign the electrical grid, do away with internal combustion engines and accelerate the installation of renewable energy facilities should be top priorities.

And, most of all, we need to elect candidates who realize that now is the time to “lean to green.” We will find ways to get through the coronavirus pandemic, at great cost in human suffering. If we are to keep future generations from living on a planet convulsed with a fever, we must move quickly to a green energy economy before it’s too late.

BRUCE COOPER
Cranberry

The writer is a group leader of the Slippery Rock chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby.

First Published: April 12, 2020, 4:00 a.m.