DESPERATION ECO-WACKO-ISM

LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 20: Students march around Parliament square in support of the global climate strike on September 20, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Guy Smallman / Getty Images)

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EVEN AS THE ECO WACKOS SEE THE GOOD OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC BECAUSE IT IS RESCUING THE PLANET FROM THE ANTHROPOCENE AND RETURNING IT TO NATURE, RATIONAL PEOPLE ARE SEEING THIS EXTREME FORM OF ECO ACTIVISM AS A SIGN OF THEIR DESPERATION. IT APPEARS THAT THEY HAVE RUN OUT OF RATIONAL ARGUMENTS. HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF THEIR DESPERATION FROM THE GUARDIAN WHERE THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IS CELEBRATED AS A GIFT OF GOD THAT WILL SET NATURE FREE FROM THE CURSE OF HUMAN ACTIVITY IN THE ANTHROPOCENE. IS MOTHER NATURE BREATHING A SIGH OF RELIEF?

FROM THE GUARDIAN

After decades of relentlessly increasing pressure, the human footprint on the earth has suddenly lightened. The environmental changes can be sensed in the sky above our heads, the air in our lungs and even the ground beneath our feet. Nature, it seems, is increasingly able to breathe more easily. As motorways cleared and factories closed, dirty brown pollution belts shrunk over cities and industrial centers in country after country within days of lock-down. First in China, then in Italy, the UK, Germany and in dozens of other countries we see falling carbon dioxide emissions and improving air quality. This is a glimpse of what the world might look like without fossil fuels.

Air traffic halved by mid-March, road traffic fell in the UK by more than 70%. With less human movement, the planet has literally calmed: seismologists report lower vibrations from “cultural noise” than before the pandemic. Key environmental indices, which had steadily deteriorated for more than half a century, have paused or improved. Carbon, emissions are down more than 40%. The lock-downs are hitting the fossil fuel industry. With fewer drivers on the roads and planes in the air, the price of oil has slumped almost two-thirds since last year. Car sales fell by 44% in March, with motorway traffic down 83%. So many more people are learning to teleconference from home that the head of the Automobile Association in the UK advised the government to switch infrastructure investment from building new roads to widening internet bandwidth. This is potentially good news for the climate because oil is the biggest source of the carbon emissions that are heating the planet and disrupting weather systems. Some analysts believe it could mark the start of a prolonged downward trend in emissions and the beginning of the end for oil. Others strike a more cautious note about the fuel that has dominated our lives and polluted our atmosphere for the past century. The drop in emissions is global and unprecedented. Air pollution has plunged in most areas. The virus provides a glimpse of just how quickly we could clean our air with renewables. Hopes that the pandemic will accelerate the transition to a cleaner world are already running into a political wall: the “shock doctrine” of disaster capitalism outlined by the author and activist Naomi Klein describes how a powerful global elite exploits national crises to push through unpopular and extreme measures on the environment and labour rights. This is what is happening in the United States and elsewhere. Oil company executives have lobbied Donald Trump for a bailout. Under the cover of the crisis, the White House has rolled back fuel-economy standards for the car industry, the Environmental Protection Agency has stopped enforcing environmental laws, three states have criminalized fossil fuel protesters and construction has resumed on the XL oil pipeline. The US government’s massive economic stimulus bill also included a $50bn bailout for aviation companies. Environmental groups are urging the UK and European Union not to do the same. If governments prime the economic pumps with the intention of a return to business as usual, environmental gains are likely to be temporary or reversed. China provides some indication of what can be expected. With no new cases in Wuhan, the lockdown is being eased and energy use and air pollution have been rising since the end of March. While our species is in temporary retreat during the lock-downs, wildlife has filled the vacuum. This year will almost certainly see a much lower toll for roadkill by cars and trucks, which – in the UK alone – annually takes the lives of about 100,000 hedgehogs, 30,000 deer, 50,000 badgers and 100,000 foxes, as well as barn owls and many other species of bird and insect. Many councils have delayed cutting the grass on roadside verges, one of the last remaining habitats for wildflowers which should bring color to the countryside this summer and provide more pollen for bees. Coyotes have been spotted on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Deer are grazing near Washington homes a few miles from the White House. Wild boar are becoming bolder in Barcelona and Bergamo, Italy. In Wales, peacocks have strutted through Bangor, goats through Llandudno and sheep have been filmed on roundabouts in a deserted playground in Monmouthshire. Commentators are talking of a post-human era in the Anthropocene, a period of human domination that is reshaping the planet. The pandemic has demonstrated the deadly consequences of ignoring expert warnings. Pollution lowers our resistance to disease and greater risk of dying from Covid-19. Nature is sending us a message that if we neglect the planet, we put our own wellbeing at risk. This makes ecological calls to move off a path of endless resource consumption more realistic, maybe even more desirable.

FROM NBC NEWS

With billions of people across the globe staying put, the environment is now thriving, with cleaner air and wild animals reclaiming parts of their natural habitat. In New York and in many other cities around the world, even underneath the mask, if you take a deep breath, you can tell the air is cleaner and clearer. It’s Back to Nature; Stay-at-Home Measures Result in Environmental Benefits. From the great outdoors to the world’s great cities, the virus shut down dramatically illustrating our impact on the planet.When we run our economies less, we pollute the environment less. And now we have seen pretty dramatic improvements in things like air quality around the world. Is this a real-time experiment on our impact on the environment? With fewer cars, planes and factories, the change is stunning. The murky waters of Venice’s famous canals now clear. In Wuhan, China, according to NASA, air quality improved 30%, almost 50% in Milan, Italy. Skies clearer in L.A., the Himalayas finally visible. Climate scientist Radley Horton warns the environmental benefits may not last if we return to business as usual, especially now with the Trump administration’s rollback of pollution controls, including vehicle mileage standards and mercury and soot emissions. As we go forward, maybe we’ll see more people only commute into work four days a week instead of five. Maybe we’ll see people not flying as often to conferences and instead, you know, relying more on video conferences and adapt to protect ourselves and the planet. Now, all this cleaner air and cleaner water comes just in time for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. At the beginning of the month, NBC weatherman Al Roker joined numerous other liberal media colleagues in pushing a “silver lining” to the pandemic – pollution being “way way down.

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