EP.868: How Climate Change Could Lead to MORE Pandemics! (UN Environment Prog. Director on COVID-19)

On this episode of Going Underground, we firstly speak to Going Underground’s Deputy Editor Charlie Cooke about the government’s response to the Coronavirus outbreak. He discusses the criticisms surrounding the government’s press briefings, which have come under attack for an alleged lack of journalistic scrutiny, Rupert Murdoch allegedly beginning to support Michael Gove to take over from Boris Johnson, accusations by the Sunday Times concerning the government’s coronavirus response and more! Next, we speak to the UN Environment Programme’s Executive Director Inger Andersen on Earth Day. She discusses why we should hesitate to be jubilant about reduced emissions during the COVID-19 global lockdowns, how climate change could cause more viral diseases and possibly future pandemics, how human activity and capitalist production is causing species to move from natural habitats, causing more diseases to come from animals and more! Finally, we speak to the architect of the 2015 Paris Climate Treaty Christiana Figueres about the book she co-authored ‘The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis’. She discusses how Coronavirus and climate change are linked, why governments must not release corporations from their environmental obligations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, why governments must use the economic stimulus measures to tackle both climate change and COVID-19, what the world can learn from Cuba’s medical internationalism and more!