We don’t need Earth Day this year to see what an effect our worldwide quarantine has been having on our planet. The web is crammed full of footage in which animals have ventured into our realm, visiting our empty suburban streets without fear. Waterways in Venice have cleared as never before in modern memory, because tourists aren’t polluting them. Nitrogen dioxide pollution has significantly decreased, as proven by satellite images. In New York City, CO2 emissions fell ten percent because of decreased vehicle traffic. Greenhouse gasses in general decrease when there are recessions.
Last year movie fans went to see Avengers: Endgame, which in hindsight appears to be spot on in predicting what is happening to us now. The movie picked up five years after half the world (and galactic) population was wiped out by a misguided megalomaniac with an agenda to “correct” the balance of the universe. A piece of good news shared among two of the remaining Avengers was that whales were returning to oceans they had abandoned decades ago, and overall the water was more pure.
The decrease in the active population has reduced the waste we discard voluntarily and involuntarily. By involuntary, we are talking about our hair and skin shedding into the open air, and voluntary speaks of the contemptuous way in which we handle our casual waste such as trash.
One afternoon a few years ago, I caught sight of a young woman who had just left a Wawa and purchased a large beverage in a disposable cup. She took a big swig and then dropped the cup and remaining drink on the pavement. The contempt was enough to make my eyes burn at the sight of it, not to mention the waste of money and the lawn having to absorb foreign matter and the trash crew who need to pick up after her.
During our lengthy stay at home, we will witness all our bad habits where we can’t hide it from anybody. Once freed, though, how likely are we to resume old habits?
It is our ignorance of the true world around us that led us to this catastrophe. Casual disregard for how we create, use and dispose of our containers; how we purchase, prepare and discard food; what we do with our overabundance of stuff which we feel is a testament to material wealth; all will lead us to a brighter or bleaker future. It depends upon us to think about what we’ve done before, and what we can change now.
I always wondered why we could not take our common-use plastics such as our Tide bottles back to the grocer and have the distributor pick them up and have them shipped back to the parent company–in this case, Proctor & Gamble–for cleansing and recycling.
Why can’t we go back to wearing dress or casual gloves?
Why can’t we design an edible container for our fast food?
Why is spitting in public spaces tolerated in America?
Why do people think they can leave a public space littered with their trash?
Why does everybody say “NIMBY*” but never stops to think that trash must be taken somewhere?
Why do we have products we can’t destroy or recycle?
We made such a simple transition from glass and aluminum to plastics and foam. Why can’t we just go back to what worked before?
We can return to our lives, and the whales may still come back. If we do it right.
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