What is climate Lockdown, What would it look like?

Oxfordshire County Council has approved plans to lock residents into one of six zones to "save the planet" from global warming. The latest stage on the '15-minute city' agenda is to place electronic gates on key roads in and out of the city, confining residents to their own neighbourhoods.

Under the new scheme, if residents want to leave their area, they will need permission from the Council, which decides who is worthy of release and who is not. Under the new scheme, residents will be able to leave their area for a maximum of 100 days a year but to get it, each resident will need to register their car details with the town hall, which will then track their movements via smart cameras around the city.

A council spokesperson told OxfordshireLive "the filters will ban private vehicles from six areas of the city at certain times and will be implemented after the completion of work on the Botley Road rail bridge in 2023".

What is Climate lockdown?

The Climate lockdown is an acknowledgement that the coronavirus crisis, like climate change, is the result of our destruction of the non-human world.

What would climate lockdown look like?

With a climate lockdown, governments would limit the use of private vehicles, ban the consumption of red meat and impose extreme energy-saving measures, while fossil fuel companies would have to stop drilling. To avoid this scenario, we must review our economic structures and make a different capitalism.

At the same time, either through a direct government mandate or due to ineffective green energy policies, some areas of the country could regularly experience blackouts. And as fossil fuels (and nuclear power) fade away, consumers may be prevented from buying new gas-powered cars, lawnmowers or chainsaws.

The climate crisis is also a public health crisis. Global warming will cause drinking water to degrade and allow pollution-related respiratory diseases to thrive. According to some projections, 3.5 billion people worldwide will be living in unbearable heat by 2070.

The combination of the effects of warming, population ageing and urbanization development will lead to a significant increase in the number of people at risk in developing countries over the next few decades.

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