How I wish the world would respond to the devastating realities of global warming and conservation issues as it did, and continues to do, over the COVID-19 pandemic, writes Cape {town} Etc’s Robyn Simpson.
When humans locked down, the planet levelled up. In just a short time without us, Earth showed evidence of healing.
What cost people lives and livelihoods — life as we once new it — is characterised as one of the largest disruptions in the modern era of global observing networks, pervasive sensing and large-scale tracking of human mobility and behaviour.
For people, the pandemic has largely resulted in economic and humanitarian disaster. But for Earth, the drastic and sudden halt of human activity offered a unique window for scientists, researchers and the world to examine the planet’s ability to heal.
Some obvious and immediate effects are reflected in the worldwide reports of reduced traffic congestion, clearer skies, cleaner waterways and the emergence of wildlife into human settlements.
With a lull in traffic and fishermen, dolphins returned to the Bosphorus in Istanbul, wild boars were spotted roaming the streets of Haifa in Israel, and a cougar was spotted in Santiago in Chile, to name a few homecomings.
In the global south, the effects were less clear-cut. Rhino poaching declined in Tanzania due to supply chain disruptions and restrictions on boarder movement, but bushmeat hunting, illegal firewood collection and incursions into protected areas increased in India, Nepal and Kenya. This is because of a loss of tourist income which forced local communities to find alternative ways of caring for their families.
In addition to anecdotal reports, effects are being detected in a variety of long-term physical observations. These range from improved air quality to reduced seismic noise and socioeconomic indicators (such as reduced mobility and declining economic growth and greenhouse-gas emissions).
Both the long and short term effects of humans being locked down highlights the double-edged sword before us: the direct positive effects of minimised human activity on the environment and the indirect negative effects of human suffering on the environment.
The respite was too short to reverse decades of destruction, but the people of the world could never sustain life under lockdown. We have to find middle ground.
The New York Times has shared its annual list of places where visitors can be part of the solution to climate change. And South Africa is on the list!
The iconic ‘52 places list’ was reinvented during the first hard lockdown in 2020. With global travel at a standstill, the publication turned to readers to ask about the places that had sustained them in the darkest days of quarantine.
Now, with the pandemic hitting its third calendar year, global travel is more viable, but it remains difficult and fraught with uncertainty (and instability).
Beyond the pandemic — if not because of it — there is a profound shift in the understanding of climate change and the swiftness and degree to which we are already seeing its effects. Recently, the effects of global warming was added to a list of 19 new subjects to be added in South African schools.
Wildfires, floods, dangerous storms, rising water levels and temperatures are all red flags frantically waving at us.
The travel industry is responsible for somewhere between 8 and 11 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, reports the World Travel & Tourism Council. But the industry is waking up. At the Glasgow climate summit, the tourism industry made its first commitment to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and reach “net zero” by 2050.
“Net Zero”: a target of completely negating the amount of greenhouse gases produced by human activity, to be achieved by reducing emissions and implementing methods of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Tourism can shift from being a problem, to forming part of the solution:
Travel supports depleted economies in places that depend on tourists’ dollars, and opens the eyes of travellers to cultures and customs different from their own — this is the philosophy behind year’s list, ‘52 Places for a Changed World’.
In the past, the list has often focused on things like a newly hot restaurant scene, an exciting new museum or the opening of a fabulous beachfront resort. This list, instead, highlights places where change is actually happening — where endangered wild lands are being preserved, threatened species are being protected, historical wrongs are being acknowledged, fragile communities are being bolstered — and where travellers can be part of the change.
In theory, it’s a great move towards middle ground.
South Africa made the list for its opportunities to preserve endangered wildlife, the wonders of the Cape kelp forests (named one of Bloomberg’s Seven Wonders of the World) and a “struggling UNESCO site” supporting jobs and education.
Some of the places on this list are not yet open to travellers, and some are in areas hard hit by the virus that may not be safe, at least for now.
“Our message is not to hop on the next plane, but to use this list as inspiration for your own more purposeful, more fulfilling travel in the coming year and beyond,” says the NY Times.
Red River Delta (Vietnam), El Yunque National Forest (Puerto Rico), El Hierro (Spain) and the Red Sea Mountain Trail (Egypt) are a few more places on the complete list of 52 glorious places.
Also read:
These are the 19 new subjects that will be implemented in South African schools
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