There does seem to be one quite noticeable benefit of this virus and that is the very evident improvement to our natural world. I am sure by now people have seen the photos of clean canals in Venice and the dolphins swimming in the clean waters of ports. They may also have seen the graphs showing before and after images over China highlighting the decrease in pollution and heat from a suspension of industry. I’m sure I have seen one for Europe too because of a lack of cars on the roads but I don’t know how they can differentiate between vehicles and industry, I suspect the mention of cars was simply for the sake of a narrative.
I mentioned previously how I am really excited to see the longer term effects of this break in polluting and the Earth’s destruction, what the scientists will be able to tell us from a few months of clean air. This is unprecedented really because not for a second did anyone think we would actually be able to see what happens when capitalism grinds to a halt. Apparently stuff gets clean. Will the ice freeze again next winter too? Will anything happen to the jet stream that heats northern Europe from this chopping and changing of carbon dioxide and pollutants in the air and water? Will we be able to see how much the Earth is capable of cleaning and replenishing itself in such a short time. There are countless more things that my brain is unaware of or will remember later, but such opportunities for study and understanding have arisen from these circumstances.
As is clear I suspect this is only temporary, I imagine normal service will resume in a few months from now. Perhaps normal service is already far more active than I realise but I don’t doubt there will be a huge drive to return to previous levels of economic success and we all know what that means. Let’s hope that the shock of these pollutants returning doesn’t then really hurt the environment, that is always a possibility. What is interesting though is how people will view all this afterwards. People are very sceptical of anything new or unknown until they have seen it in action and one issue with this environmental damage is that it continues because it is normal. This day to day existence is normal for us.
Reusing things fifty years ago was once normal and now recycling is some kind of a new gimmick. We are terrible animals of habit and if we can create new habits we may just create a new normal. People have already started walking in parks, Snowdonia had it’s busiest weekend ever, people are getting into nature. If we have shortages people will just get used to reusing things and consuming less. Perhaps they will see photos of clean canals and realise it is possible to clean up our mess, that this huge unrelatable problem has all of a sudden become something understandable and achievable. Who knows really.
If we’re going to be open to the possibility that capitalism is going to use this opportunity to tighten it’s destructive grip we need to also be open to the fact that the very opposite could happen. All is unknown at present and while the unknown can be scary it has proven in the past to result in some of our greatest achievements as a species. We haven’t survived this long to let a little virus like capitalism keep us down, let’s not allow it to win now at this most important of junctures when it’s grip may just be at it’s weakest.
Observations and Misunderstandings 