Editor’s note: This commentary is by Michael J. Caduto, who is author and co-author of more than 20 books, including “Keepers of the Earth.” He serves as executive director of Sustainable Woodstock, and is the founder/director of P.E.AC.E.®—Programs for Environmental Awareness & Cultural Exchange.
Wavering under the impact of the coronavirus on our health and economic well-being — to the point where many are struggling to simply meet their basic needs — the functioning world, as we know it, has been brought to its knees. Even as we strive to place the Covid-19 pandemic into perspective, each day brings new revelations that push us toward a future horizon that seems to shift farther out of reach. So we adapt our perceptions, respond with new health and safety protocols in our daily lives, and endure.
Many individuals, organizations, municipalities, essential businesses and guardians of our collective health and safety are putting the well-being of others ahead of concerns for themselves. And for that we are grateful. People are being fed, lives are being saved and economic lifelines are being cast far and wide. This hour of darkness is illuminated by the light and warmth of human compassion.
In the midst of this disruption to our lives, time slowly marches on. On April 22, 2020, Earth Day arrives several months into the global pandemic. In honor of our home planet — the ultimate source of sustenance and nurturing for every living thing — let us pause and take the pulse of the environment. How have our efforts to drive Covid-19 into a corner impacted the planet?
In normal times, travel contributes nearly one quarter of the world’s overall carbon emissions, with some 11% of that total coming from air travel and a whopping 72% from driving. Construction, industry and manufacturing together generate over 18% of humankind’s carbon emissions. With travel and economic activity at a near standstill, air pollution in China is down by 25% and in New York City it has dropped by 50%. The air in India’s capital of Delhi has been cleaner in recent weeks than it has in recent memory as some 11 million cars sit, unused. Similar conditions are being experienced across the world, from Sydney to Beijing and from Bangkok to Moscow.
The current downturn in carbon emissions and other air pollutants is not a result of progress in our efforts to fight climate change — it is the unintended consequence of a tragic global human health emergency. We have inadvertently become time travelers to a surreal Thoreauvian world — forced into living more simply while sheltering-in.
From communities to states, and from national to international governments, we are proving that people can band together to protect and heal ourselves. What are the lessons that we can take away from the Covid-19 pandemic so that this human suffering and anguish will have not been in vain? How can we put these unprecedented efforts to good purpose by redirecting them from safeguarding people toward our work to protect the health of the planet, and so, all life? What kinds of Earth-friendly behaviors can we consciously hold onto once our lives return to some kind of normalcy?
Time is precious. The springtime privations and accommodations inherent with staying home will soon carry over into the early heat of summer, especially in urban environments and in the Southern states. Sheltering-in will then take on a new level of uncomfortable isolation as we begin a summer of sweltering-in, from which there will be little surcease.
Whatever we do to Earth, we do to ourselves. Let us show that we can learn and adapt — that we can put first the well being of the planet and future generations. Unless we use the lessons we’ve absorbed while fighting Covid-19 to marshal a global effort to mitigate climate change and prevent the advance of global warming, we will soon find ourselves leaping from the pandemic into the fire.
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