Climate Change, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and Environmental Injustice: Understanding the Root Causes and Interactions
Climate change refers to an increase in the average level of the global temperatures. It is believed that natural events and human activities have played an extremely negative role towards an increase in the average global temperatures which have primarily been caused due to an increase in greenhouse gases. In the late December 2019, Chinese health authorities reported an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown origin in Wuhan, China. A few days later, it was provisionally named as SARS-CoV-2 according to the national committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. Since it has been discovered, it has spread globally, causing thousands of deaths across the world along with an enormous effect on the global health systems and economies. Environmental injustice is one form of social injustice which is normally referred to as the disproportionate exposure of some individuals and groups to environmental hazards without receiving the benefits derived from the hazards. Racial discrimination is perceived to be the primary cause behind it. This paper would aim to find how these three social issues correlate and impact communities as a whole.