I am not sure if you read the article at all. (i) The article points out there can be some long term gains as well as has been seen in the past, for example, w

I am not sure if you read the article at all. (i) The article points out there can be some long term gains as well as has been seen in the past, for example, with self-empowerment of labour class. Currently this is seen, as the author points out, with polls showing governments keep to work together more in future for Green New Deal. Another example would be society as a whole being more supportive of fundamental scientific research; Companies adapting to new ways to work-from-home (Twitter made news recently allowing employess to WFH forever even after the pandemic ends) and so on. (ii) The author argues against the ecofascism ideology giving examples why it is bad which is against your idea that a deadlier pandemic will help. Why would end of tourism industry be good for the environment? Tourism industry in a lot of cases helps sustain the habitat for wildlife (see sources in the article). (iii) Was it US or China that pulled out of the Green New Deal earlier this year? We do not know what the future will bring but we can already see which global economic power is currently handling the crisis better. So short answer: Maybe.