Nature Vs Covid-19

The global coronavirus pandemic, which has already caused unimaginable devastation and hardship, has brought our way of life to an almost complete halt. The outbreak will have profound and lasting economic and social consequences in every corner of the globe. 

Moreover, nature has responded to coronavirus sudden start of something bad like disease in different ways. 

One way it has shown different good effects on mother nature as humans were locked into their homes. 

Venice is the clearest it has been in 60 years, and dolphins have been spotted down in southern Italy, swimming in clearer water. As more people participated in self-isolation, there was a major fall being seen in non-essential travel because of which Venice had hardly seen visitors. And so, in Venice’s case, there was less need for transportation of any kind to be running, and the canals with less boats were coming up clean, clear and beautiful.

It is obviously a terrible situation, with more than 1.15 million deaths worldwide. China had reported a significant decrease in air pollution. The air pollution from nitrogen, gas emitted by cars, power plants and factories dropped by 40% over Chinese cities due to the restriction put to prevent the rapid spread of coronavirus. Studies also showed that particulate matter fell by around 20-30% over large parts of China. Wuhan, the epicentre of the Coronavirus outbreak had a hazardous air-pollution level, which had surprisingly come down by 21.5 per cent according to data revealed by China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment. The significant decrease of air pollution in China was testimony to the fact that the earth was healing.

With humans self-isolating in their homes, animals that usually stay away from urban areas had space to roam. In Barcelona, Spain, boars had been spotted along the city's normally bustling avenues, snuffling and trotting around where vehicles once jostled for position.

Meanwhile in Chile's capital, Santiago, a wild puma was captured after being found wandering around the city's deserted centre during a night-time curfew. It was thought that the animal may have ventured down into the capital from nearby surrounding hills.

There is no doubt that these lockdowns had hit the fossil fuel industry. With fewer drivers on the roads and planes in the air, the price of oil had slumped almost two-thirds since last year.So many more people were learning to teleconference from home that the head of the Automobile Association in the UK advised the government to switch infrastructure investment from building new roads to widening internet bandwidth. “The drop in emissions is global and unprecedented,” Rob Jackson, the chair of Global Carbon Project said. “Air pollution has plunged in most areas. The virus provides a glimpse of just how quickly we could clean our air with renewables.” 

There was clear air and increased visibility in India. Cleaner air has perhaps been the single greatest positive effect of the lockdowns on the environment. Citizens in Northern India were seeing the view of the Himalayan mountain range for the first time in their lives, due to the drop in air pollution caused by the country's coronavirus lockdown. Those living in Jalandhar in northern Punjab had shared pictures of the mountains from rooftops and empty streets, amazed by the view which has been hidden by pollution for 30 years.

Besides the positive effect, this planet proved anything but an impotent victim of colonization and exploitation. Human mistreatment of the natural environment has turned out to have distinctly painful boomerang effects. The interplay between human activity and planetary behaviour has led some analysts to rethink our relationship with the natural world. 

The coronavirus is a zoonotic disease, meaning it jumped from animals to humans. Now, it seems to be jumping back. Some months ago, news emerged that a tiger at the Bronx Zoo tested positive for the coronavirus. It is thought the tiger, named Nadia, along with six other big cats, were infected by an asymptomatic zoo keeper. Zoos across the globe have been closed as part of national lockdown and zookeepers say their most intelligent and social animals – including gorillas, otters and meerkats – are missing the attention of humans.

The pandemic resulted in an increase in the amounts of medical and hazardous waste generated. Analysts also confirm that decrease in air pollution will not help reduce climate change. 

Much of the added heat and carbon dioxide has been absorbed by the planet’s oceans, resulting in rising water temperatures and the increased acidification of their waters. This, in turn, has already led to, among other deleterious effects, the mass die-off of coral reefs -- the preferred habitat of many of the fish species on which large numbers of humans rely for their sustenance and livelihoods. Just as consequential, higher ocean temperatures have provided the excess energy that has fueled many of the most destructive hurricanes of recent times, including Sandy, Harvey, Irma, Maria, Florence, and Dorian.

Remember the decrease in air pollution in China? Well, it was during the lockdown. China is the first major economy to return to business after the pandemic, and the extent to which it prioritizes a green recovery is being watched. Air pollution in China has risen above levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic for the first time. Having dropped dramatically in the height of lockdown, the concentration of harmful gases seen recently surpasses levels during the same period last year, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). The rebound appears to be driven by industrial emissions, and presents early warning signs that the country may be on track for a “dirty recovery” in which highly polluting industries lead the way, the CREA says.

We are at a critical juncture in planning how to overcome this global health crisis and address economic shocks. But exactly what this will look like is yet to be determined. There can be no going back to business-as-usual. It is just a matter of fact that Nature has been suffering this pandemic in its own way and there is nothing that we can do to stop the way it responds.

-DC