The year 2020 is ending on a particularly bleak note. People have lost jobs, some have lost their closed ones, while still others are suffering from the aftermath of the disease. Such a large scale disruption in modern human activities was unprecedented and have been termed as “anthropause”. However, Covid-19 seems to have brought a small positive impact too, that is on the environment. Global quarantine has given Mother Nature some necessary respite from human torture. Waste production from factories has been reduced and emission of greenhouse gases from automobiles have also fallen drastically during this short period as the world came to a standstill. Although this is economically unsustainable in the long run, it is indeed considered as perhaps a temporary relief.
Scientists and Environmental Activists all over the world keep emphasizing, time and again, on the immediate need to focus on climate changes. They urge us to notice the fatal consequences of the increasing rates of pollution and exploitation of natural resources on the sustenance of humankind at a whole. Unfortunately, their concerns and repeated warnings seem to have largely gone unheeded. It is ironical that only after a pandemic shook the entire human race, that authorities in positions of power are finally reclaiming their responsibility as global citizens to maintain and regulate some sort of a balance in the ecosystem. Whether it is due to the negative effect of Covid-19 or because of the sudden lack of employment in various households, there has certainly been a significant change in the way people think about environmental issues now.
Some of the more noticeable changes in daily routines might be at a microscopic level when compared to the requirements for influencing the overall state of our environment but it is worth taking baby steps towards something than none at all. People have started rediscovering old ways of recycling materials, engaging in green hobbies such as kitchen gardening or avoiding public transport and walking to nearby places instead. Social isolation has made humans more conscious of their innate desire to be one with Nature. There has been a considerable rise in people frequenting parks or taking morning walks to escape the feeling of being cooped up at their homes for days at a stretch. In the current scenario, once again humans have had to come to terms with how much they depend on one another to live a fulfilled life.
While it has also led to the rise in consumption of junk food and snacks, as comfort food, many have resorted to utilize this chance to experiment with home-made recipes of making pickles or jams and trying to live more cost-efficiently to avoid frequenting supermarkets. Small scale industries, especially those that rely on manual labour rather than mechanical production, have been more in demand, thanks to their self-sufficient methods of production. Of course, millions of daily wage earners have lost their livelihoods as industries shut down indefinitely, making life harder for those in the lower rungs of society. One can only hope that as soon as the vaccination reaches the masses, the people who are worse affected would find new employment opportunities and be able to gain a firm footing again.
Needless to say, spending time with family members have also grown at an exponential rate. On one hand this has been a boon to many who had been too busy to look after their family or participate in familial occasions, but on the other hand it has resulted in an escalation of domestic abuse. The social workers and lifelines who provide emotional support to people that need it have reported to get an extraordinary number of such calls for help. Especially people who have family members or themselves involved in the front-line of Covid-19 patients, are undoubtedly under a lot of stress and anxiety. Yet, once again we realize that one cannot ignore the effect this kind of anthropause has had on the environment, directly or indirectly.
It is significant to note that Covid-19 has several adverse impacts on the environment too, such as the surge in the reliance of single-use plastic and lower oil prices due to lockdown which has further negative consequences. Detailed studies and research shows that there is a potential connection between biodiversity loss and intensive food systems that is said to make zoo-tonic diseases more likely. Whether unlikely or not, the pandemic has ultimately resulted in highlighting the extent to which every living species on the planet are interconnected to each other and how societal resilience depends on the natural stability of the environment itself for their own safety and survival.
As far as wildlife is concerned, there has been a decline in fishing which has enabled fishes to grow rapidly thus converting the situation where fishes were fast depleting due to excessive fishing. Sea turtles have also been spotted to return to areas where they used to lay eggs after human interference had driven them away from their breeding grounds. With less boats and ships plying the waterways, be it for work purposes or leisure, the oceans have got a chance to recover and marine life has started thriving again. The pandemic has left people stranded at their homes and with less people outside on the streets and alleys, there is definitely lesser litter which means lesser clogging of drains, thus adding to the improvement of the overall hygiene of the place.
Despite all this, Environmentalists are not happy with the positive outcomes because they believe this is only short term and such a temporary pause in the general human way of living cannot establish any substantial climatic change or stop the environmental degradation in the long term. This is where we receive mixed feedback regarding the impact that Covid-19 has on the environment. For permanent and withstanding change in the way the environment is treated, one has to develop a whole new system of climate restrictions and policies. The temporary lockdown situation is not enough to counter-balance the centuries of exploitation of nature at our hands.
In fact, experts fear that there might be a rebound effect as soon as the world starts opening up and going back to its old lifestyle. The pandemic has affected climate diplomacy between nations and also jeopardized enforcement of environmental laws and policies. But the one thing that it successfully instilled in the humans is the awareness that without a proper healthy environment we are too weak to fend for ourselves and it’s only so far from becoming a pressing issue that we need to solve. Therefore, it is clear that now is the time to concentrate all our energy together, keep our national and other identity differences aside and try to come up with a systematic global way of dealing with this environmental and climatic crisis without further delay.
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