A pandemic is a sudden increase in an infectious disease that affects a large number of people across different geographical regions worldwide.

Pandemics affect everyone that comes into contact with the disease. People living in temporary homes or who are homeless, people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, and people on low incomes are particularly vulnerable as they tend to live in disproportionately overcrowded conditions, and often have limited access to healthcare services. Often these groups are oppressed in other ways, too, for example they may be of Indigenous heritage, structurally disadvantaged due to their sexuality, gender or race, or have disabilities. 

The root causes of the climate emergency also impact pandemics. For instance, deforestation for large-scale agriculture and timber harvesting can cause ecosystems to lose their balance, causing animals that carry diseases (like rats, fleas and mosquitoes) to thrive and carry new zoonotic diseases to human-inhabited areas. Extreme weather events magnify disease outbreaks - warm, wet conditions can help pathogens survive longer, for example..

Once a pandemic starts, limited healthcare, poor water and sanitation, displacement, and inadequate surveillance can exacerbate its magnitude.

Addressing the root causes of the climate emergency can reduce the impact of pandemics. Better healthcare and vaccination provision, clean water, sanitation programs, and epidemiological surveillance will further limit the spread.

Every player must add 1 Community in Crisis per Temperature Band.

Players can reduce this effect by 1 for each Social Resilience token in their player board.

For example: 5 Temperature Bands – 3 Social Resilience = add 2 Communities in Crisis.

Resilience tokens are not discarded.

• Pandemic Hub (WHO)

• Coronavirus and Climate Change (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)

• Disease outbreaks more likely in deforestation areas (The Guardian)

• Epidemics and pandemics (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC) 

• Advocate for your government to end deforestation and support local people and agricultural workers to switch to regenerative farming systems.

• If disease outbreaks occur in your area, join a mutual aid network, helping people who need to shield with food deliveries, for example..

• Support policies targeting the climate emergency and encourage governments to invest in public health science and early response systems to tackle pandemics.