President János Áder, in his latest environmental Blue Planet podcast, discussed the relationship between science and democracy, the level of commitment of visionary leaders, and other issues with climate researcher Diána Ürge-Vorsatz.
Continuing his discussion with Ürge-Vorsatz, a member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), from last month, Áder underscored the importance of prevention efforts when it comes to the fight against climate change. For every dollar invested, 6 dollars’ worth of damage from climate change can be prevented, the president said.
Ürge-Vorsatz said the situation was similar when it came to the coronavirus pandemic, arguing that the pandemic could have been stopped had countries listened to scientists and kept restrictions in place longer. Whereas lockdown measures were effective in curbing the spread of the virus in places like Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam and Thailand, “the most prosperous democracies” had deemed the sacrifices recommended by experts to be too great, she said. Today, however, it can be said that the damage caused by the pandemic far exceeds the losses that would have been incurred from longer lockdowns, she added. Ürge-Vorsatz said that as a scientist, she would make the Covid-19 vaccine mandatory, arguing that doing so would be in society’s interest. The world is now dealing with a more contagious mutation of the virus, she said, adding that a higher inoculation rate was required to achieve herd immunity.
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