In a matter of months, the world has been transformed. The worldwide lockdown has seen billions of people under some form of restriction. The flights are grounded. The busses and trains are emptied. The private cars are now sitting on the driveways. Everybody says Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft has warned us years ago. He gave a TED talk in 2015 in which he talked about the greatest risk of global catastrophe in the world today was “not missiles, but microbes” – not nuclear war, but an influenza virus. But of course, we were not ready for the impact of a pandemic like coronavirus COVID-19.
Jaguars, Pumas, Racoons Rooming Deserted Streets
The coronavirus pandemic has shut down countries across the world. It is having a huge impact on people and the economy – but what about the wildlife and the environment?
In Los Angeles, New York and Madrid the skies clear as air pollution drops. Canal water in Venice has cleared up without boat traffic.
You can see fish and dolphins are coming back. In Thailand and Japan, monkeys and deer are rooming streets now devoid of tourists. Even a jaguar have seen walking on the streets of Cancun in Mexico. Raccoons, turkeys and other animals have made their way into urban settings in a time of social distancing, quarantines and lockdowns. Cities all around the world with deserted streets have turned into concrete jungles stalked by pumas, coyotes, mountain goats…
This is actually the unexpected side of the pandemic. Nature is reclaiming its spaces.
With the virus consuming everybody’s attention, the climate issue has been crowded off the agenda. Climate activist Greta Thunberg urged her followers via Instagram to shift the ongoing Fridays for Future protests into cyberspace. She wrote “We can’t solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis and we must unite behind experts and science.”. “This, of course, goes for all crises.”
The Climate Change Problem is not Going Anywhere
The natural world is not escaping the global crisis and we are still worried about the global issue of climate change. We should never forget about it or lose momentum. We will all continue to get through these difficult times together. One day it will be over, but the question remains: What will the world be like when this is all over? We will still have to face climate change. What will the governments and businesses do then?
If you liked reading this article stay tuned. The next article will be about the effects of coronavirus COVID-19 on air pollution across the world.