12
COVID-19 Teaches a Pro-Nature Lesson to Humanity Written by Cami Ismanova
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
June 2020
FEATURE
T
he novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, has created an ongoing pandemic that has been affecting almost all of us in a variety of ways. It has been reported in 187 countries and territories around the world, leaving hundreds of thousands people unemployed and stuck in quarantines for an uncertain period of time. While some countries are handling it well, others have not been so lucky. At the beginning of April 2020, approximately 3.9 billion people worldwide were under some kind of lockdown amid concerns of COVID19’s spread. One does not have to be an economist to imagine what kind of economic recessions countries will face based on the recent figures. Although economies are partially shut down, consequently limiting industrial manufacturing, production, and touristic transportation, some environmentally positive news has been circulating on the internet and in the media. Among them are a drop in carbon dioxide emissions due to limited transportation use, the clearing of canal waters in Venice, the Himalayan peaks in India becoming visible, the healing of the ozone layer, and more. It seems like nature is recovering and even thriving, whereas humanity is forced to remain indoors. It is hard to see a silver lining in situations like the current pandemic, but the fact that nature is regenerating itself is indeed a silver lining. The turquoise waters of Venice, replenished with colorful marine life in a currently tourist-free city, and the majestic Himalayan peaks are sights worth seeing, without a doubt! But for how long will they remain in this condition? The day will come when the world will resume its usual busy life and the never-ending race to increase GDP by producing more and more. In the era of slogans
▲ Crystal-blue waters in Venice. (twitter.com/barnyz)
▲ Chinese air quality before and after the outbreak of COVID-19. (NASA Satellite)
like “the consumer is always right” and liberal economic concepts such as “the more a country produces, the richer it is,” there is a high probability that we will quickly go back to the way we were. And the way we were was not a sustainable normal. If it were, we would not face ozone-layer depletion, widespread pollution, freshwater withdrawals, land conversion, increasing magnitudes of natural disasters, and rapidly disappearing species in flora and fauna. Moreover, human activities like deforestation, the booming meat business, and animal hunting increase the risk that viruses originating in the animal population might jump from animals to humans as a result of closer contacts in the future. Therefore, I would like to share with you a couple of notable policies implemented by different countries in order to prevent the looming climate crisis. One of them is in the process of partial implementation, while the other is in the stage of active realization. The first agenda is called “Sustainable Amsterdam,” supervised by the administration of Amsterdam. “Sustainable Amsterdam” is a good example of relevant responses to climate issues
▲ The Himalayan Peaks are now visible due to the lockdown amid COVID-19 in India. (wikipedia.org)
