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1 of 7 | Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP / TT
Young Buddhist monks during a religion lesson in Thailand’s capital Bankok, where most schools are closed due to covid-19. Stock Photography.
The new corona virus was classified by the World Health Organization as a pandemic two months ago. Since then, the pandemic has changed the world and our daily lives in many ways: here are some of them:
A third of the world’s inhabitants are banned.
More than a third of the world’s population, 2.6 billion people, have suffered some kind of curfew during the current crown crisis, according to figures released by the AFP news agency. To prevent the spread of infection, 42 countries have imposed strict curfews in recent months, including India, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Colombia, Nepal and Iraq.
In these countries, residents are only allowed to leave their homes to buy food and medicine and to carry out other matters that have been absolutely necessary. Those currently spending the most time at home are residents of the province of Lodin, Italy, which is entering its eleventh week of curfew.
In many parts of the world, bans are now beginning to be eased or removed entirely, including Germany and France. In China, where covid-19 was first discovered, restrictions were lowered in early April.
Empty school desks: can have major consequences
Students and students around the world have been affected by infection prevention measures that often include closing all or part of the education system. 177 countries have closed schools and universities to some extent today.
The UN agency Unesco estimates that more than 72 percent of the world’s students, 1.3 billion children and youth, have been affected by the closure of schools and universities. In many places, teaching has been replaced by distance learning, including in Swedish universities and colleges that have been closed since March. Unesco previously warned that the lack or change of education worldwide can lead to increasing gaps and that many of the children and young people who now lose part of their education will be affected for a long time.
Economic crisis “worst since the Great Depression”
Extensive closures of the world’s countries have already had tangible economic effects. And it will be worse. The crown pandemic appears to have the worst economic consequences since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
In its latest forecast, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) states that the impact of the crown pandemic on the global economy looks much worse than the financial crisis of a decade ago, when the world’s total economies declined by 0.1 percent in 2009. As a result of the crown crisis, Sweden’s economy is forecast to contract by almost seven percent. Globally, the IMF forecasts a 3 percent drop in GDP in 2020.
To reduce the economic impact, governments around the world have been pushing through rescue packages of historic measures. In the United States, the Senate approved a staggering $ 2 billion bailout package, equivalent to SEK 20 billion.
Poverty surveillance withdrawn
Since the 1980s, world poverty has steadily declined. But the crown crisis means that these decades of global poverty reduction are at risk of being lost, something that, among other things, the aid organization Oxfam warned about.
Poorer countries have poorer health care to address infected economic opportunities and poorer countries to help those who are indirectly affected when economies are depleting. The crown crisis and its effects can now force 500 million people into poverty, the aid organization warns in a new report.
According to the World Bank, around 3.4 billion people already live on less than the equivalent of 50 SEK a day. If an additional 6-8 percent of the world’s population is forced into poverty, it means that more than half of the world’s population could be considered poor.
Decreased emissions, at least temporarily
Although the economy has slowed down, the weather has had a chance to recover. In many cases, those who continued to work during the crisis did so remotely, private consumption plummeted, and private and freight transport declined. According to preliminary calculations by the climate and energy news site Carbon brief, and which, among other things, Dagens Nyheter reported, the corona crisis appears to have a greater impact on annual emissions than previous economic wars or crises, such as World War II and the financial crisis of 2008- in 2009. According to his calculations, emissions for the year could decrease by up to 4 percent, which is equivalent to 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide.
But it is too early to say whether the positive climate effect will last. The Corona virus already seeks to hamper future climate negotiations, and the tougher economic times do not bode well for green investments and more ambitious climate goals.
Oil prices change the geopolitical playing field
Demand for crude oil has plummeted as a result of the global economic slowdown, and gasoline prices have reached new depths. In late April, US WTI crude oil. USA It even had a negative purchase price, which meant that producers were willing to pay to get rid of the oil, which otherwise threatened to run out of existing storage capacity.
It may be a long time before oil prices recover and world economies return to their former capacity. In oil-producing countries, the effect of this is more noticeable. Countries like Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Iran have a budget based on an oil price well above the existing level. When oil prices fall, this can have significant effects at both the national and geopolitical levels. In Venezuela and Iran, even before the crown crisis, a tight economy had created furious popular dissatisfaction, which could hardly be reduced now.
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