Looking INTO THE future with optimism
The positive impact on climate change while the world was shut down.
Very few of us can say that we’ve experienced something like this before. A time where the world as we knew it was basically shut down. Dinner dates with friends, swimming at the beach, and road trips out of town all became off-limits.
As this time of readjusting took, well, time, there’s no denying some beautiful things came out of the world’s lockdown. From reductions in air pollution, to clearing waterways and wild animals making an appearance in cities, Mother Nature has given us a few things to smile at. And whilst it’s important to acknowledge the loss from this unprecedented time, it can be immensely helpful to look at the future with optimism.
With no more cars on the road, mass production coming to a halt, and takeaway coffee cups becoming a thing of the past, all these little changes, from a lot of people, made a world of difference to Mother Nature.
We were first shown a glimpse into this beauty when the tourist city of Venice started to see the clearing of their canals. Images of the canal – usually populated with gondolas ready for their tourists – swarmed the internet, showing a starkly different image of Venice, with schools of fish swimming through the canals.
Meanwhile in India, a country notorious for its air pollution levels, some residents were being greeted with a new and unusual vista.
In cities throughout India, locals on lockdown became very snap-happy after seeing the Himalayas – a sight that has not been visible in some areas for more than 30 years. The majestic mountains are reported to have been visible from up to 200km away, including from as far as the Jalandhar district of Punjab. A beautiful sight that would surely have been the first for many.
Nearby, residents of Kathmandu, Nepal also experienced a sight for sore eyes, with Mount Everest becoming visible from 200km away.
Locals say this hasn’t been the case for many years and attributed the clear skies to a reduction in fossil fuel emissions, suggesting a switch to electric transport could make this a regular phenomenon.
China followed a similar pattern. NASA recorded a dramatic reduction of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), estimated at a drop of 10 to 30 per cent, between January and February. It can’t have been a coincidence that NO ’s main sources – vehicles, industrial sites and thermal power stations – were stagnant when the city of Wuhan was in strict lockdown.
It’s not only humans that have been enjoying the benefits of clearer skies, waterways and quieter streets. There have been many reports of wild animal sightings in urban areas of late. From wild boars roaming the streets in European cities, deer meandering through urban streets in Nara, Japan, and turkeys wandering around California, perhaps it’s fair to say that nature has been having a ball.
A new New Zealand?
Whilst it’s great to see the stories from around the world, did our own lockdown have any great environmental impact?
A couple of weeks into lockdown, Sustainable Business Network NZ (SBN) carried out an initial assessment of the drop in carbon emissions. SBN estimated our country’s emissions were dropping at a rate of about 25 per cent, a rate that, over a year, could see them drop from 81 million tonnes to 60 million tonnes. The last time our annual emissions were at about 60 million was before 1990. Under the Paris Agreement, New Zealand has committed to having reduced its gross emissions by 11 per cent below its 1990 levels, by 2030.
The drop in our emissions over lockdown relates to radically lower transport use, mainly our vehicles, which accounts for nearly 20 per cent of our total climate-warming emissions. The SBN analysis suggested that emissions from our road vehicles might decline by around 75-80 per cent when compared with businessas-usual rates.
Phil Jones, projects & advisory lead of SBN says that of course, the shock of the pandemic is not the way we want to reduce our impact. However, we can use the pandemic to create a new future. “As we recover from Covid we need to use the opportunity to re-invent our economy so that our social and economic wellbeing is decoupled from greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental damage,” Jones says.
Jones shares some insight as to how, saying lockdown has revealed to many how their jobs are suited to working from home. The concept of more flexi-working is a real opportunity. “This has multiple benefits – more time at home, less congestion, lower emissions, etc. The quieter streets have also encouraged more of us to go for a local walk or cycle. It’s been especially good to see more kids out on bikes. If the lockdown has made us think more about how we get around, with less reliance on the car and air travel, then that will be a silver lining.”
If any one person were to give us a vision of a better future, it would be Kiwi-born, English-raised Tomos Robertson, otherwise known as Tom Foolery. The poet shared a ‘bedtime story’ of an idyllic life post-pandemic, ‘The Great Realisation’, which has 5.7 million views and counting.
The story shows us leaving behind mass consumption, digital obsession and destroying the planet, for a better world, one with love, human connection and respecting nature.
When Robertson was asked what people can do to make a better future, he said that ultimately it poses a challenge. Some will find it easy to become more conscious, but others will find it difficult. Foolery invites us to think constructively, ask ourselves if there are steps we can take as individuals or as societies that would lessen the suffering of people and increase the joy.
“From what I know of the past, there have been some incredibly dark times that people have been able to overcome,” Foolery told The NZ Herald. “All I think it takes is to be able to access a ray of hope – it doesn’t have to be a big amount”.