Our Planet Is Healing

Greenhouse gases are down, air quality has improved. Fuel prices have plummeted and communities are coming together.

Venice canals are running clear from the absence of motorized boats and tourists. The ocean wildlife is more abundant once again and fish are now visible in the waterways, where once Gondolas flow.

ANDREA PATTARO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

The Himalayas are now visible for the first time in almost 30 years from Northern India. The air is cleaner and the sky clearer above Los Angeles and Tehran. The thick chocking air pollution is vanishing over China as human activity drops.

           
 Reddit.com      NASA’s Earth Observatory

Even though this virus is having a devastating effect on our human population, with infections surpassing the 1.5 million mark, these lockdowns are having quite the opposite effect on our planet’s environment.

Can we keep this up, to a degree, after we have control over this pandemic? Will our governments and the majority of the population can see how quickly our health benefits can be improved with more thought into how we go about our everyday? Is it possible for society to change its ways, for the good of the planet?

Just to witness the drop in polluting emissions has to have a profound effect on the way we view and think about our environment. Because of this pandemic and the social changes and sacrifices weve have all had to make, surely we can see that reaching our preferred climate goals, are a real possibility.