OUR government has done an admirable job of containing the coronavirus, one of the biggest threats to the earth's population in recent times.
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But why can't the government do the same to contain climate change?
In three short months of almost global lockdown, the decrease in emissions and pollution has changed many things.
OTHER RECENT ECO NEWS COLUMNS:
In Venice, Italy, without the cruise ships and the ever-present vaporetti (water taxis), the water is clearer and one can see fish, crabs and jellyfish in the canals, cormorants diving, ducks nesting.
In Punjab in India, people who have not seen the Himalayas for decades can now see them due to the decreased pollution.
In Bathurst, I don't think the night skies have ever been clearer.
On clear nights, the milky way is visible as a giant swath across the sky, something that is normally pretty unusual.
There are similarities between virus action and climate action.
Many of our virus cases came from other countries before we closed the borders. If we send our coal to India and China to be burned there, the carbon dioxide will eventually be wafted back to our own shores, and we can't close our borders to that!
Will this be a wake-up call to our leaders of the benefits of taking better care of our environment? I have my doubts.
Our Environment Minister Sussan Ley is trying to rush through changes to our environmental laws to "remove green tape", and you can bet that won't make them stricter.
The NSW South Coast community of Manyana, north of Ulladulla, is fighting to stop development of a 20-hectare pocket of unburned bushland and forest after last summer's devastating bushfires.
Fishermen in Victoria have reported huge reductions in their catch since seismic testing for oil and gas started there.
And I can almost hear the politicians touting the Adani mine at the end of the coronavirus crisis: "Now, more than ever, we need these mining jobs ..."
Unlike the virus, the government can use climate inaction in other countries as a reason for its own inaction.
But the government has shown us it can act when it needs to.
It needs to act on climate change, and use that as a lever to persuade other countries to do so.
