GLOBAL CEMENT: THE LAST WORD

摘要

As one of the 4.5 billion people on earth currently under some form of coronavirus-related lockdown, I have seen a lot of my local area recently. This has mainly been while walking / scooting with my wife and two small children. During a recent jaunt, we noticed how clear the birdsong was on our road. This was due to three factors: More birds in early summer, virtually zero traffic noise and the fact that we ourselves were not racing from A to B in the car. A little further up the road, a question popped up: Does this situation look anything like a 'low-CO2 future?' There would certainly be similarities, most noticeably regarding travel. Air travel has currently plummeted in the second quarter of 2020 due to a twin collapse of demand (nobody wanted to fly) and supply (closed borders and bankrupt carriers). This dramatic decline is not dissimilar to the I0W-CO2 futures advocated by some climate campaigners in which only the most genuinely deserving cargoes (and travellers) can take to the skies.