Consumerism, the social condition (as some would say) that drives our need to endlessly collect goods with no real sense of practicality (Hamilton, 2010). A phenomenon that is greatly costing our environment, from the extraction of natural resources, the production, transportation and finally the throwing away of such good when another one appears on the market (Humphery, 1998). Thus, as lockdowns were imposed across the globe, travel was reduced, less cars were seen on roads, city centres were quite, and parks, lakes or beaches were left to their own. The clear canals in Venice, the blue skies in China, the sighting of the Himalayas in India, all proof that the environment was in need of a break from us.
The halted rate of urbanisation and tourism in India lead to a decrease in sewage and toxins released into the rivers, improving the water quality. The Ganga water for example, ‘’ was found clean and safe for drinking due to 500% decrease in sewage and industrial effluent‘’. With a decline in vehicles on land and on the ocean, noise pollution also fell, reducing stress levels on wildlife, which provoked whales to converse more and coral reefs to be filled with life again. This reduction in noise due to limited activity created an opportunity for birds to return to lakes usually filled with people, dolphins to swim closer to shore, and grey wolfs to come closer to roads, reminding us that this is as much their home as ours. Lastly, due to the virus, we have also seen a drop in air pollutants all over the world. With a decrease in particulate matter of 10 microns or less from 176.07 before lockdown to 84.79 after lockdown in India (Shefali et al, 2020), and a decrease of nitrogen dioxide by 40% in Italy (Cameletti, 2020).
However, this break is mainly depicted as a glimpse of hope for our environment, without focusing on the whole picture. Considering that emissions will rise just as quickly as they dropped once economies start up again. As soon as our demand for goods increases, the environment will feel the burden if left with no help. This can be seen when looking into the European Clean Air Programme which enacted commitments for members to reach by 2020 and 2030 to hopefully ‘’ reduce the health impacts of air pollution by half by 2030 compared to 2005’’. However, as of June 26 2020, it was stated that only 10 members will be able to reach their 2020 goal and only 4 will reach their 2030 goal. This is definitely concerning as poor air quality in Europe is the number one cause of premature deaths as it takes around 400,000 people each year. Reinforcing that even with such a pressing need to reduce air pollution, it does not seem to be at the top of many agendas (Abnet, 2020; Apelblat, 2020).
Overall, unfortunately COVID-19 did benefit our environment briefly, but the deaths of thousands of people should not be the wake-up call we need to start tackling the environmental crisis at hand. Whether it’s individual or global, we all have an act to play, and hopefully with all that has happened, we can begin to understand the possibility our environment has to bounce back if we really do commit to saving it.
コメント