Coronavirus – A Wake-Up Call To Humanity

Reader Submission:

The coronavirus has successfully made it to every continent in the world (except maybe Antarctica).  As you are reading this, you are probably on some type of lockdown, mandatory stay-at-home orders or in some type of “social distancing” situation.

We are all sitting here bitching and grieving, yet, Mother Earth seems to be celebrating for the same reason.  The amazing thing to me about the virus is not the number of people it has infected or killed, it is how fast the earth has been able to bounce back in certain areas without us being there infecting them.

All over the world people are noticing things.  Things that they haven’t noticed or seen for years or perhaps ever.  Without humans there to fu*k things up, the world is recovering from the centuries of abuse that we have put her through.

Italy is one of the countries being completely ravaged by the virus, forcing Italians to self-quarantine in their homes.  In the short period of time that the virus has had them on lockdown, the wonderfully romantic city of Venice has seen dolphins and fish return to the area to take back the waters that were once so rightfully theirs.

As Italians self quarantine in their homes and boats cease to Operate in Venice ,
Dolphins returns & reclaim #venice waters …. Italians pls don’t let them disappear again .
This is what we are doing to mother nature . #coronavirusitaly #covid19italy #COVID2019 pic.twitter.com/du1acMc1nR

— MOHIT BARMAN (@mohit_b) March 18, 2020

😳 😳 😳 #venice
An unexpected side effect of the pandemic: 💧Water’s flowing through the canals of Venice is clear for the first time in forever.
🐟 🦢 The fish are visible, the swans returned pic.twitter.com/crWf4kdZ1M

— Aurel Boriçi (@AurelBoriciBT) March 18, 2020

NASA has reported that the giant cloud of pollution over China disappeared while everyone was on lockdown due to the virus.  The cloud of noxious gasses was clearly visible in satellite images prior to the virus.

NASA images: China’s air pollution decreased amid coronavirus measures https://t.co/NFj2D73yRY #NASA

— Dr. Dorathy Tamayo-Murillo (@DorathyTamayo) March 18, 2020

Unfortunately, China’s pollution levels are starting to creep back up now that they are on the tail-end of their coronavirus journey and factories have started operating again.  China is not the only country to have seen a significant drop in air pollution, however, Italy and other countries are currently showing drastically reduced nitrogen dioxide levels as well.

Levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution are inching back up over China. Definitely not a surge above pre-crisis levels, just factories and transport starting to run again. Steep drop in northern Italy. pic.twitter.com/8vY3zcYU9k

— Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (@CREACleanAir) March 13, 2020

These are only a few examples of the world recovering without us, there are many many more that can be found on social media.  When people see something out of the ordinary that is typically the first place they turn to express their amazement.

Perhaps the whole Coronapocalypse was supposed to be a wake-up call to us all. Look around, we are just getting a taste of what we put the world through constantly.  It is unfortunate that people are dying, I’m not saying that at all.  We as a global collective need to take this time while we are all on lockdown to think of new ways to help not only ourselves but the planet in general.

By no means am I telling you to jump aboard the Greta train or to believe any particular way about climate change, the climate changes with or without us and there is nothing we can do to stop it ultimately.  The world is going to do what she is going to do.

We should try to make a difference in the places that we can make a difference, however.  Let’s not let this very blatant show of how we have affected our space rock go unnoticed.  If Venice has clear water and dolphins again and cities have clean, breathable air all because humans were taken out of the equation for a brief period of time, it should tell us something.

I am making it a personal goal to become more involved in conservation when I am able to be out of the house again.  Sure, I recycle but that doesn’t mean that I can’t do more.  I look around at how fast our home is rebounding from years of abuse and can’t help but feel a little bit ashamed of what we have done.  Perhaps we are just being given a taste of our own medicine.