A Moment To Breathe
I feel that this COVID-19 quarantine is exactly what the earth needed, to be honest. A break from humans is giving the planet a moment to breathe. I read an article that talks about the lack of air pollution in China, a girl in London could see the Eiffel Tower from her apartment because the air was clear, the water in Venice, Italy has fish and dolphins swimming through it now that the boats have stopped running, and goats in Whales has climbed down the mountain to take over the empty roads of a small town. I understand the tragedy that society is currently facing with people losing their jobs/incomes, as well as some people losing their lives and/or the lives of their loved ones, but I do feel that the amount of people staying inside around the world is doing a lot of good for nature. It is kind of amazing to see what the natural world looks like without humans invading it but the issue is that humans are a part of the natural world and eventually people will be returning to school/work soon enough. While it may be insensitive of me to look at this pandemic as a good thing, due to the amount of tragedy surrounding it, I have always said that I think it will take something really big to happen for people to care about climate change. I can’t help but wonder if this is the big moment that opens everyone’s eyes. I wish it didn’t have to be like this, I wish people could accept the seriousness of climate change without the global pandemic, but hopefully, we can come out of this a new outlook on how to hold a balance while living in nature. Right now, the media focus is solely on the numbers of the pandemic (as it should be) so I don’t think people are making the connections that without humans, nature is thriving (especially when the economy is crashing) but I am trying to stay hopeful that not only will we come out of this pandemic soon but that we will have an appreciation for the natural world and want to treat it better.
Abigail Cicerchia
Consequences
It seems apparent that nature always strikes a balance. That if something upsets that balance, sooner or later, nature will come up with some counterbalance that often involves the curtailing of one species or another. The human race has become massively overpopulated, and have taken more than our fair share of the resources on this planet, usually at the expense of every other species. We have tipped the scales of nature in our favor and it seems now we are paying for it. Climate change is causing sea levels to rise and making hot places unbearably hotter, and as the habitable land mass of the earth shrinks, the people will continue to pack together and on top of each other. Crowded cities will produce heavier pollution, and casts shadows and threaten the safety of those in the city. As health levels decline and quarters get tighter, pandemics will spread.
We are seeing a version of what that kind of future holds right now. Or at least how quickly those pandemics can get around, so that it no longer matters what part of the world gets sick because it will spread everywhere. There is a sort of cliché observation going around right now that “humans are the virus and COVID-19, the cure”, which while sometimes espoused by pseudo-intellectuals hoping to be profound, there is some substance to that idea. Just as global warming, a consequence to our destructive environmental activity, will kill many of us in the coming years, pandemics – like COVID-19, will become increasingly frequent and continue to kill, as a consequence of our overpopulation.
As climate change creates more and more uninhabitable spaces here on earth, more and more people will be squeezed together, which will make pandemics like COVID-19 even more deadly.
Aaron Kotulek
Damage Control vs. Prevention
My knowledge of climate change and all the dangers that come along with it’s path into the future makes the COVID-19 crisis much more terrifying. Along with a lot of other problems in the US and around the globe, the way that coronavirus is being handled is through “damage-control” and not prevention. Climate change will bring along with it many more sicknesses and pandemics with varying degrees of seriousness and globalization. It frightens me how unprepared our nation was for this pandemic and I’m not sure that COVID will change how something like this is handled in the future. Along with dealing with the damage that is happening in the now, we simultaneously need to be creating a plan for how to deal with epidemics in the future because with knowledge about how climate change will affect our planet, we know this isn’t just a temporary roadblock but an opportunity to plan for the future. I hear so many people talking about their plans for “when this is all over” or “when COVID-19 is in the past” and it scares me to think that this won’t motivate people to take precautions daily, despite a global pandemic not looming over their heads constantly because we know that there is a possibility this could happen in the future. We have seen the effect that this has had on not only health care centers but also the economy, the job market, schools, big business, public transport, and basically every other aspect of our everyday lives. So not only does the government need to have a plan on how to guide people through a pandemic, but businesses and universities now need to have plans on how to deal with similar disasters in the future. However, knowledge of climate change can make these disasters more bearable because if we know what might happen in the future because of climate change, institutions of all kinds can make a plan for different emergencies. We shouldn’t have to make things up as we go, which is what I’ve seen a lot of during this international crisis. I’m scared, because I don’t want to live through another disaster before my leaders create a plan on how to combat it.
Rebecca Mann
Planning For Disaster
I’ve said it many times before and I’ll say it again. We’re living in very strange, unique, and crucial times. We’re currently living through history, whether we’re talking about the pandemic, climate change, the presidency, etc. Living in today’s world, climate change has always been something that’s been on the forefront of my mind, but now it’s also been met with COVID-19. As a result, one of the questions I’ve come to ask myself during this time is, how do my experiences with and knowledge of climate change affect the ways that I feel or think about this pandemic? The answer, though, isn’t that simple.
Ever since being exposed to the fact of climate change, I’ve acknowledged that with each new day we’re slowly moving away from our preconceived idea of a “normal” life. However, I feel as though with COVID-19 wreaking havoc throughout the globe, this idea of “normal” will shift and is already shifting much more drastically than it would’ve if we were only concerned with climate change. This idea has now prepared me for the many different ways life could move on after this pandemic, because it surely won’t be anywhere near the same, similarly to how cities, states, or countries respond to and come back from natural disasters due to climate change. Climate change is something that’s going to affect different parts of the world at different times at a much slower rate than COVID-19 is affecting the earth, so, right now, it’s interesting to see how people, the government, and those on the forefronts are responding. I find it somewhat comforting how seriously people are handling this pandemic when comparing it to how people are handling climate change since there’s currently a major lack of things being done to stunt it. All in all, climate change has somewhat prepared me for how to handle life after COVID-19 but it’s also given me a bit of hope in regards to how much action is being taken to fix this. Hopefully the same action will soon be taken for climate change and the sake of humanity.
Catherine Buckley
Fear and Optimism
I identify as being a person who is relentlessly optimistic. Even when there is a major crisis, after the initial feelings of shock/sadness/fear—I try to ask myself what this experience could be teaching me–or in terms of a pandemic like COVID-19, what this experience could be teaching the world. I have stayed away from the articles that predict that this time will change our country for the worst. Instead, I have chosen to view this pandemic as a “very dramatic awakening” to everything that isn’t working, and hasn’t been working for a long time (for example, our very flawed health care system and the lack of services for those who are unemployed).
This pandemic is affecting everyone, even the famous and the wealthy—who in our culture, we often view as “The Untouchables.” COVID-19 can be compared to what our life circumstances could look like in 20 years if we don’t start devoting our resources towards addressing climate change. There could very well be less jobs and an increase in diseases and sicknesses. It is hard not to wonder “is this the new normal?” or “will this ever end?” There are many times throughout the day when these questions float through my head and I feel fearful—but I always try to remember that everything is changing all of the time. And yes, this may get worse before it gets better, but it will shift and change. Even though we have only been dealing with COVID-19 for a few weeks, so many issues we have in our society have been brought to light. It is my hope that in this time we can focus on what we can do from here, not what we have lost—but what we can do to change the direction to turn toward a more positive future for our planet and the people who live on it.
Maya Staples