lockdown is a boon or bane for nature
Answers
Answer:
bane is the answer mate
The real challenge now lies on reviving the pre-existing climate friendly trends. Despite a temporary decline in global carbon emission, the International Energy Agency has warned that the economic loss fuelled by coronavirus may prevent companies and other stakeholders from investing in “Go Green” policy. There may be considerable decrease in public transport due to fear of contagion and reliance on individual cars, which will significantly increase the pollution levels. However efforts from all quarters will bear fruit – companies can reduce business travels, opt for video conferencing to achieve the same results; people can prioritize health and family bonds by choosing to stay home rather than vacationing and travelling, cultivate positive habits, cut down on food waste and luxuries. Meanwhile global conferences like the Cop26 UN have been postponed, Greta Thunberg has urged for digital activism in place of physical protests. UN leaders, scientists and activists are stressing on green jobs and clean energy. The pandemic has demonstrated the deadly consequences of ignoring expert warnings; it has also showed how pollution lowers our resistance to diseases. As the UN’s environment chief, Inger Andersen puts it, “Nature is sending us a message that if we neglect the planet, we put our survival at risk”. Since the beginning of the pandemic we have witnessed how things changed, this would perhaps be the outcome had the environmental policies been put in place since the first Earth Day in 1970, where 20 million Americans rallied in support of anti-pollution measures. If we return to pre-pandemic lifestyle, oblivious to what harm we are doing to nature, we should brace ourselves for another pandemic. The challenges posed by COVID-19 are huge but they will soon pass, but let us pledge to not return to our pre-pandemic ways of life and re-chart our course. To quote Thomas Lovejoy, an ecologist: “We bulldoze into the last remaining places in nature and then are surprised when something like this happens. We have done this to ourselves by our continual intrusion into nature”. We shouldn’t have waited for a crisis like this to teach us how to nurture and love Mother Nature. So on this World Environment Day, let us make this celebration of nature’s healing a long lasting one rather than temporary....