Environmental Benefits of Coronavirus

 Coronaviruses are well-known to us. In fact, you are probably an unknown host to millions of them now. Coronaviruses cause various illnesses ranging from the common cold to severe and often deadly respiratory infections. This new strain, COVID-19, is short for coronavirus disease-2019.  This novel coronavirus is responsible for the current global outbreak. Although coronaviruses are well-known, this new strain has no cure or prevention. This fact has jeopardized millions of human beings worldwide, particularly the elderly or immune suppressed.

“The coronavirus outbreak has seen widespread changes in human behaviour, encouraging companies to alter everyday operations by suggesting employees work from home, reducing congestion and enhancing air quality.”

It is possibly too soon to arrive at conclusions concerning the consequences of the new sickness. Still, at present, we see the significant impact the topic has on the mass media and how this is being transmitted into drastic individual decisions that affect the smooth functioning of our society, particularly the economy.

According to Green Connect CEO Kylie Flament, there's been a 25 per cent increase in people wanting to buy fruit and vegetables from her organisation's Lake Heights farm.

She also saw a significant increase in people looking to other environmentally friendly alternatives to cushion the impact of COVID-19 social distancing and self-isolation.

"Coronavirus is causing enormous health, social and economic upheaval, and that shouldn't be underestimated, but there are silver linings and some of these are environmental," she said.

She pointed out that local nurseries have been selling out of plants, especially edible ones, and said she had noticed an increasing demand for people wanting backyard chickens.

"These might have been things at the back of people's minds, and suddenly it's become an urgent priority," she said. "So the silver lining in all this is that people are being pushed to more sustainable living."

Low to no NO2

The NO₂ is a noxious gas. It generates from motor vehicles. Thus, it is clear that the recent plummet of this gas was due to the nationwide shutdown of vehicle movement. The fewer vehicles on the road mean low-to-no NO₂ in the air. Evidence of the reduction of pollution started in Wuhan and spread over the entire mainland China.

We see reduced production in the Chinese industry, which has resulted in a considerable drop in China's pollution. We also understand that many international conferences, summits or events that concentrate thousands of individuals from different countries are being cancelled or made virtual because of the fear of extending the infection of coronavirus. This is happening in tech, business, science, and other sectors, even museums and Disneyland in several places in Asia. Venice, in the distant past a lovely town of canals, but converted in recent decades into a pathetic unpleasant attraction park with mass tourism of 20-30 million visits per year, is now deathly silent. What a respite for the Venetians! What good news for the ecologists and tourist-haters! This positively affects the reduction of CO2 emission and the whole wave the destruction associated with holiday and professional conference tourism. Possibly not so good for airline companies or travel agencies. It is certainly not very good for the economy in general, but it is fantastic for the environment.

For decades, we have witnessed the struggle between the expanding forces of the economy and the restoring forces of ecology. Conclusions that may be derived from observing this confrontation are that:

1) an ecological/green/sustainable capitalist economy is an oxymoron; that is, capitalism and sustainability are mutually exclusive ideas, and

2) the economy is winning almost all of the hands of the battle down. A prominent example of the failure to arrive at a green solution within the current model of our western-style societies in developed countries is illustrated in global warming conferences: a perfect example of hypocrisy in which climate scientists and many politicians, administrators and people living on the green lobbies behave as a "jet-set" among the highest ratio contaminators. At the same time, they exert their moral authority to demand that people in less privileged groups of our society, such as coal miners, teamsters working on oil pipelines, and mining-dependent workers sacrifice their own economic well-being to fight climate change. One of the latest failed attempts to find solutions came from the COP25 in Madrid of 2019 summit; another one in the long list of fruitless negotiations to try to stop or mitigate the adverse effects of the global warming already knocking on our doors.

The implicit or explicit explanation for the long list of unsuccessful negotiations is always the same: "yes, yes, we see the problem, but... you know, we have the economy to think about, and many people will suffer if we significantly modify any of its parameters, so let us continue to live as usual, even increasing our consumption habits, and we will meet again at next summit to eat in good restaurants, enjoy tourism and take beer with colleagues to try to find a solution". Putting it bluntly, there is no solution, and we are damned to a disaster unless a miracle happens.

Suddenly, much to the surprise of the economic and political gurus, the solution is spontaneously arising in front of our very eyes: a virus. As in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, a microscopic Earth lifeform has finally proved to reverse the victory in what has so far been a losing war to reduce the excesses of a crazy, self-destructive world. Neither Greenpeace, nor Greta Thunberg, nor any other individual or collective organization have achieved so much in favor of the health of the planet in such a short time. A miracle happened, and, suddenly, all the excuses to avoid a reduction of contamination have been shown to be spurious. In less than two months, worldwide organizations have shown us how it is indeed possible to close museums, shut down whole towns, including such top touristic destinations as Venice, reduce the number of flights, and cancel many of the most important conferences and summits, etc. And this is only the beginning.

When I said in a previous article that we should ban conferences or hugely reduce their numbers, I knew that almost nobody would take this advice seriously, but it now comes as a complete surprise that I am now witnessing the very thing I was recommending. Suddenly, we realize that all the excuses to avoid the reduction of contamination were just excuses, and that we can perfectly live in a world without conferences, a world of academicians and scientists without beer-drinking with colleagues and feeding the narcissism of some researchers, an expensive luxury that we should not be able to afford in these times of climate crisis.

"Yes, we can", said the slogan of a former US president. Certainly, we can; we can stop the world if necessary and keep the people alive and healthy and happy without an expanding and destructive economic system. But words are not enough to move the world; arguments are not enough in the midst of irrational systems. With beasts like human beings, which are moved by a more terrible and irrational monster such as Money, only fear works, and sickness such as COVID-19 of moderate mortality (not so dangerous so far, it is not as mortal as the Ebola virus although it is more infectious) may be more effective than good arguments in pushing humanity in more sustainable directions.
Thanks https://www.calamitypolitics.com,https://www.illawarramercury.com.au,https://www.rt.com