OPINION
Five eco lessons I’ve learnt from lockdown Anna Turns, environment journalist @AnnaTurns
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hile the collective trauma of this worms living in it. global pandemic is distressing, I certainly don’t miss shopping in the enforced pause on ‘normal’ life supermarkets. Unable to get delivery has given nature a chance to recover slots from the ‘big four’, we’ve discovered with cleaner air, louder dawn choruses, alternatives. Supporting sustainable quieter oceans and fewer contrails cross fisheries, traditional artisan production and the blue skies. regenerative farming is a chance to boost As a biologist, I believe we’re living rural economies and enhance biodiversity. through a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity Buying direct from farmers, fishermen, to create a greener future. Lockdown butchers and independent producers that has sharpened my focus and instead of have rapidly shifted to offer home delivery reverting to life pre-coronavirus, I hope helps to reinforce shorter supply chains for a massive step-change in behaviour that could be more resilient in the longand attitude. Politicians and business term. leaders take note – the transition to net Looking ahead, the imminent global zero carbon emissions is absolutely recession is an opportunity to kickstart a possible if we act now. While mitigating new and more ethical financial system. If climate change won’t involve extreme airlines get bailed out by the government, social distancing and self-isolation, there surely that has to come with green are valuable environmental lessons to be caveats and carbon taxes, for example. learnt from this experience. Any investment must be environmentallyA jar half full? Reasons for optimism post-corona. Imagine an empty jam jar. If you fill it minded to springboard us into a future that with sand first, it’s really difficult to then fit prioritises green tech, clean energy and in the bigger pebbles and rocks on top. But agroecology. if you put the rocks and pebbles that represent the more important Right now, we can press the reset button and decide how best environmental priorities in first, the smaller grains of sand will fit in to refill our empty jam jars. There’s no need to fear a new ‘normal’ the spaces around them. In order to adapt, we need a rethink. – there’s a positive way out of this; we just need to put the biggest For the first time, I’m seriously tempted to ditch my car pebbles back in the jar first. altogether instead of switching to an electric car in the future. Reducing the total miles driven and number of cars on the road is as crucial as electrification of our transport system. Without a car, I’d save money, probably stay fitter – walking, cycling and running Anna Turns explores how an alternative approach to lockdown more over recent weeks has felt quite liberating – and travel plans learning can help reconnect children to nature and provide the basis would be much more consciously thought out. for a lifelong understanding of the environment. I’ve never been a shopping addict, but I have bought Read at bitly.ws/8yIB. significantly less ‘stuff’ during lockdown and made more of an effort to fix things. My children have been perfectly happy wearing a few favourite outfits and playing in the garden – they just don’t need wardrobes full of clothes or overflowing boxes full of toys. Every single item we purchase has a carbon footprint and a cost to the environment, from its manufacture to its transport, packaging and disposal. The same goes for food. Every year, UK households waste a shocking 4.5 million tonnes of food that could otherwise have been eaten, according to WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme), and the Turns household is no exception. But eating every single meal at home has highlighted the sheer scale of our domestic food waste and now we’re planning meals more carefully, freezing leftovers and getting creative with resources in the larder. We’ve also made a compost heap as a last resort for food scraps and the kids have developed a ceaseless fascination with the slow
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