Exciting Time

In the spring of 2020, I did my internship at the division of “International Cooperation on Biodiversity” of the “Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety” in Bonn for twelve weeks. Three reasons that made it a very exciting and special time were:
– Germany prepared itself to takeover the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (second half of 2020);
– The draft of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework has been developed – which originally was planned to be adopted during the CBD COP 15 (15th “Conference of the Parties” to the “Convention on Biological Diversity”) in Kunming, China, in October, 2020, within the German EU Presidency. However, the COP 15 has been postponed to 2021 due to the corona pandemic;
– The corona pandemic has started to spread in Germany.

Corona and the Internship

At the beginning of the internship, I was mainly involved in the preparations for the CBD COP 15. However, the CBD COP 15 process was shifted because of the corona pandemic. Concerning my internship alone, the corona pandemic had disadvantages as well as advantages:
The biggest disadvantage was that I could not enter the ministry building anymore after my first weeks. Instead, I had to work from home like my colleagues did but it turned out to work surprisingly well.
The biggest advantage was that I got insight how a federal ministry is working during a crisis. Due to the crisis, I could witness how the ministry handles a totally new, dynamic situation right from the start and I was closely involved. My tasks switched from the topic “CBD COP 15” to the new topic “nature destruction and zoonoses”.

Tasks

Some of my tasks were:
– Review of comments on the latest IPCC (“Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”) Assessment Report (AR6) within the peer review process;
– Analysis of preparatory documents for the CBD COP 15 and defining and evaluating indicators;
– Contributing to the preparations of a Federal Press Conference held by the Environment Minister;
– Preparation of an interview with the Environment Minister;
– Involvement in the creation of an internal strategic discussion paper;
– Responding to citizen´s e-mails;
– Preparation of an internal expert talk and giving an internal presentation;
– Preparation of speaking notes for the Minister and Parliamentary State Secretary;
– Preparation of the participation of the Minister in an online-panel;
– Review of different working papers, amongst others, within the interdepartmental coordination.

Working as Policy Officer

I am very grateful that my unit and subdivision had confidence in me and handed tasks with high responsibilities over to me. Those sometimes challenging tasks allowed me to get deeper insights into policy and now I feel better prepared for a job position after the university.
I hold the employees of the Ministry in high esteem. They have to deal with a high workload and oftentimes must fulfil their demanding tasks, which have a high responsibility, in a little while. Those experiences were very valuable to me because I could feel the work as policy officer very closely.
In my opinion, the advantages of being a policy officer in the Ministry outweigh clearly. For example, one can participate in international conferences all over the world, one has to manage changing, challenging tasks and topics and is close to the highly topical political events. But most of all, the greatest advantage is that I had the feeling that one’s work can really help to improve the protection of nature. And that’s what is necessary to keep alive the underlying motivation for the daily work.
I appreciate very much that I was treated like a normal member of the team and am very happy that I can continue to support the Ministry together with my new very nice team of the GIZ (German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH) as student assistant.

If you are interested in an internship at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, check the latest organisation plan and application requirements (the German language is a precondition).

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The global pandemic caused by a new coronavirus has changed daily life for many people around the world. Restrictions in travel and commerce have forced people to stay home, businesses to close, and travel to cease. But what about non-human life and human perception of it? Turns out the human response to Covid-19 has had a measurable effect on the environment and presents novel opportunities for research. But what about reporting that is not research backed? And will affects such as reduced pollution last? Here is a brief overview of recent updates.

Decrease in Vibration in the Earth’s Crust

There is a global network of seismometers that measure vibrations in earth’s surface. Traffic, machinery and other human activity all create vibrations which, when combined, can be significant in seismometer measurements. These anthropogenic vibrations influence how easily detectable other phenomena are including earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Following the massive shutdowns and travel restrictions across the globe in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, anthropogenic vibrations have decreased, especially in places with higher population densities.

Thomas Leroq, a geologist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, shared that Brussels has quieted down 30-50%, a reduction generally only observed for a few days of the year around Christmas. This extended decrease in the baseline level of noise could allow for better monitoring and measuring of earth’s surface activity. Following a Tweet Leroq made about the relative quiet in Brussels, other seismologists around the world have been connected. They are actively sharing data and exploring the possibilities of what can be seismologically researched in this quiter world of the Covid-19 pandemic. [i]

Reduction in Air Pollution

NASA Earth Observatory published tropospheric monitoring results from the Sentinel-5 satellite which show significant declines in atmospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over China. This drop has been attributed to the slowing down of human activity due to the coronavirus. Also in China, the use of coal at coal-powered power plants declined to the lowest level in four years causing notable decreases in air pollution.

This reduction in atmospheric pollution is not confined to China. In fact, Jenny Stavrakou, an atmospheric scientist at the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy in Brussels, alongside her colleagues, estimated the change in nitrogen dioxide pollution in major cities using satellite measurements of air quality. While the highest decline was measured in China, with an average decrease of 40% in major cities, nitrogen dioxide pollution decreased by 20 to 38% over Western Europe and the United States when compared with this same time of year in 2019.

In Los Angeles, one of the most densely populated United States’ cities with notorious traffic and poor air quality, commuter traffic is reported to have decreased by 80% since the lockdown went into effect. The Environmental Protection Agency reported that Los Angeles has recently had the longest stretch of “good” air quality rating it has since 1995.[ii]

A Cleaner Ganges

The Ganges river is worshipped by many Indians who pray, bathe and cremate their dead in it. The BBC reported that an estimated 10% of industrial effluent is discharged into Ganges river. Following the Indian government’s mandated shut down to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the river is reportedly visibly clearer and even considered drinkable in some areas.[iii]

Fake News

Maybe you’ve read about the swans and dolphins returning to the now-clean Venetian canals? Fake news. Or the elephants, unbounded in the absence of humans, getting drunk on corn wine in a Chinese village and passing out in the tea garden? Adorable, but also not true.

It is understood that in stressful times, people seek and perpetuate social media posts that are emotionally evocative, wanting to feel for themselves and to share with others joyful, happy content. Remarkably, this behavior on social media has been found to correspond with the spread of infectious diseases, according to research reported on by National Geographic. Think about that: As the pandemic spreads across the globe, so too do viral social media posts, truthful or not.[iv]

Will it Last?

Back in the realm of credible news updates, one major environmental question being asked is whether the declines in pollution and other responses from the Covid-19 pandemic will last. Regarding fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gasses, some researchers speculate that once the restrictions are lifted, people and industries will work overtime to make up for their lost time. For example, will people who have been self-isolating come out of quarantine and book commercial flights to make up for the trips they missed? Many agree that whether environmental responses to Covid-19 will last or turn out statistically relevant will depend on how long the pandemic lasts. And as with so many other things right now, that remains uncertain.[v]

[i] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00965-x

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmatters/2020/03/05/how-the-coronavirus-is-and-is-not-affecting-the-environment/

[ii]  https://globalnews.ca/news/6793100/los-angeles-air-quality-coronavirus/

[iii]  (https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-india-52290522/india-coronavirus-lockdown-cleans-up-ganges-river)

[iv]  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/03/coronavirus-pandemic-fake-animal-viral-social-media-posts/

[v]  https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200326-covid-19-the-impact-of-coronavirus-on-the-environment

The post Covid & the Environment appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

Again, taking the corona crisis as an example, what we are doing now is trying different available antiviral drugs, convalescent plasma therapy and undertaking vaccine trials. In our hypothetical scenario with forest and climate change, the Klimawald (“Climate forest”) concept is like a combination of two methods: antiviral drugs and convalescent plasma therapy. Wherein the former is about using a certain combination of existing drugs to treat the disease, and, the latter involves transfusion of plasma from a COVID-19 recovered patient into an infected patient. Thereby, the antibodies present in the plasma of the recovered patient helps to neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the infected patient. Similarly, in our climate forest, a species is selected to be planted for its ability to tolerate drought or the ability to enhance the resilience of the forest in future climatic conditions. We planted 11 species of conifers and broad-leaved trees; 7 of them are native; 4 come either from Southern Europe, the Mediterranean mountains or from North America.

Now, let us move on to the real world, where things are more complex and challenging. Just like it is not easy to convince people to adopt social distancing, it is not easy to bring people from diverse backgrounds and different interests for a common cause. “Why did we build Klimawald?”, “What was the need?” and “How far we have succeeded?” were some questions we asked ourselves. We acknowledge the responsibility of maintaining the beauty of this planet in a way that it was given to us. Centuries ago, Ludwig van Beethoven said, “How happy I am to be able to walk among the shrubs, the trees, the woods, the grass, and the rocks! For the woods, the trees and the rocks give man the resonance he needs.” We hope our future generations will be able to describe the beauty of forests as he did.

The project Klimawald began under the title “Carbon Offset Week” in which we – the initiators –  wanted to organize a planting campaign for people who wish to offset their carbon emissions. When the Office of Land, Forest, and Agriculture (AELF) and Hospitalstift willingly offered a hectare of land for plantation, the concept of “Carbon Offset Week” was revised. Now, the aim was not only to plant trees, but also to restore a damaged forest, and, therefore, with Dr. Gregor Aas and Dr. Birgit Thies we developed the concept of Klimawald (“Klima” meaning climate and “wald” meaning forest in German). We identified four major threats to German forests: low species diversity, long and intensive droughts, the velocity of climate change and the dispersal rate of trees. Klimawald model suggests thinning, planting diverse species, and selecting future-oriented species. We built Klimawald to acknowledge our carbon footprints, take responsibility for the impact of human-induced climate change and contribute to prepare forests for future scenarios.

Ecologist Eugene P Odum once said, “The future belongs, not to those who have the most, but to those who do the most with what they have”. In our case, we had one hectare of forest land which was converted from spruce-pine forest to mixed forest with the help of scientists, forestry practitioners, students, and citizens. Apart from the human resources, the financial resources for the project were covered through donations and support from our partners. The success of a project depends on how an action is followed up by another. In the case of Klimawald, the planting event in spring was followed by two watering events in summer. The average survival rate was about 90% at the end of August 2019.

What we learned from this project is that the knowledge can be translated into action when individual interests synergize. Klimawald also showed us a way to hold dialogue with different sections of our civil society. Some of our partners and supporters who had never worked together found common grounds to cooperate. The idea of Klimawald not only generated interest among the citizens of Bayreuth, but it has moved beyond its borders and motivated students from Höxter to develop their own Klimawald Höxter. It also led to the development of a similar project by our team members in South Korea. In the meantime, the Klimawald site has become a spot for excursion and environmental education. The project also stirred a debate on the model of climate forests. In the forthcoming year, we want to improve the project, build close networks and take further actions.

Overall, the experience of developing an idea of Carbon Offset Week into a Klimawald project was very enriching. According to a Korean proverb, “고생 끝에 낙이 온다 (gosaeng kkeute nagi onda)”, delights come at the end of hardship (English translation), and a delightful moment has arrived in the journey of Klimawald. Out of 160 projects in Germany, Klimawald is now nominated for the award “Blauer Kompass 2020” of the German Federal Environment Agency. Apart from three jury awards, there is an audience award for which the voting has already begun, and we are in the second spot as of April 15, 2020. Global Change Ecology (GCE) is an international study program and so is our team. The diversity of nationalities is a strength of GCE students. And to confront a global problem like COVID-19 or climate change, we need this strength!

We hope that the help and support received during the planting and the watering event will be showered on us again for the “Blauer Kompass 2020” competition. Klimawald was built with your participation and will stand the test of time with your participation. Because the story has just begun…

On this link, you click,

Klimawald you select,

While you press Abstimmen

Remember this simple request,

Same time again tomorrow,

On the same address,

You can vote for us,

Till 20 April.

For more information visit: https://en.klimawaldbayreuth.com/

Blauer Kompass 2020: www.uba.de/tatenbank

(written by: Nikunj Pathak on behalf of Kun Ro, Ahram Chae, Theresa Landwehr, Steffen Schwardmann and the Klimawald team)

References: https://www.bmz.de/en/publications/topics/climate/Materialie283_forest_action_plan.pdf

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Anthropologists point out that part of what makes humans unique amongst species is communication to be able to undertake unilateral, coordinated action towards certain ends. In the face of climate change and biodiversity loss, our limits have become apparent. This may be because humans are also hardwired towards prioritising risks that they can sense using their evolutionary instincts – generally short-term and visible. See more and more people wearing masks, and progressively emptier public spaces, and the message gets through. Evolutionary psychologists tell us this makes us bad at decisions that require long-term planning horizons and indirect threats, and at making sacrifices without immediate or tangible reward. Therefore, it is critical to have leaders that can foment institutional, technological and behavioral change towards climate change mitigation and adaptation, even if certain stakeholders are resistant. The pandemic has shown us that we are indeed capable of acting swiftly, decisively and effectively on a major threat to our wellbeing.

The type of reaction needed is made difficult when our fates are being decided in a multilateral system in which ambition is decided by the lowest common denominator – bad faith actors that are always countries with fossil fuel resources. These countries operate under undue corporate influence and the consideration of short-term election cycles, and where democracy is frayed or missing, the impulse to stay in power. This has resulted not in years, but decades, of delayed action on the biggest existential threat humankind has ever faced. Never has the phrase ‘we are only as strong as our weakest link’ been more applicable, than to global-scale threats such as pandemics and climate change.

One such bad-faith actor has steered the course of our reaction to climate change. When COVID-19 was largely seen as a China-limited issue, the U.S. Republican party vocally denied that coronavirus would ever be a threat. One of their members wore a gas mask on the floor of their lower house to mock the concern of the opposition party, while Donald Trump called the virus a hoax. This has mimicked their attitude to climate change, which Trump has also called a hoax. These are the political machinations of a government of the world’s superpower, the same superpower that has pulled out of two international climate agreements (both the results of years and decades of painstaking negotiations) and consistently lowered ambition in international climate change negotiations. To illustrate, we may right now have been chasing a 1.5C instead of a 2C temperature rise curtailment goal: in 2018, at international climate change negotiations, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Russia objected to ‘welcoming’ the IPCC report detailing the importance of this revised goal, nixing any downstream increases in ambition. The United States has had the economic and financial clout to influence other countries in collectively bend the curve but has consistently and overall failed to do so.

Instead, Post-Paris agreement, rich world institutions are still growing the fossil fuel economy, by subsidising and funding it, all while viable alternatives exist. Moreover, the logic driving the growth (and inequality) imperative is based on outdated economics. An enormous amount of waste and inefficiency, duplication and redundancy exists in the name of economic growth, based on models that treat the environment and atmosphere as expendable input and waste sinks, and capital as the chief measure of concern in accounting.

Eventually, once climate change has manifested to a degree where its impacts are irrefutable, and should there be democratic process left in a sufficient number of institutions, our global publics will demand action. The goal should be to pre-empt this theoretical point of action-upon-manifestation, to look at the exponential growth curves of active COVID-19 cases and plot in our minds the potential for the same trajectory of runaway with climate. This is where clima-tude comes to bear, as it proves to us that we are capable of evolving as a species, to perceive risks that the early-evolved parts of our brains have an in-built bias against, and to take action on what may seem like faith alone. Just as we cannot see a virus and we act on the faith of what virologists tell us, so too should we act on the faith of climate scientists, climate economists, risk assessors and security specialists.

Ultimately, the lessons with COVID-19 are that the value of sacrifice is an easy calculation to make, and that global cooperation is vital in countering a global threat. Countries are cooperating to beat back the spread of the virus, and the moment we are having right now is what it feels like to fight a common enemy. Cooperation means sharing information, resources, technological and institutional know-how. Italy is warning the rest of Europe that they are not taking the COVID-19 threat seriously enough, China is sending medical staff to Italy, factories are being retrofitted to produce hand-sanitiser. The likelihood that we will take necessary action, confident that others are like-minded and dedicated, is vastly increased by a  culture of cooperation, rather than a retreat into our lagers and stooping to hamstering – whether with toilet paper during the pandemic, or status-signaling conspicuous consumption all the while. In the context of climate change, carrying on with business as usual is a race to the bottom of perceived self-preservation.

Underscoring this cooperation is the reality that we share a planet, and in the language of epidemics, our movement and interaction affects everyone, just as in the language of climate and global change, so too does our impact on this planet. How interconnected we are, will become visible beyond this pandemic, through drought-induced drops in food production, increased terrorism risk and conflict that inevitably draws in countries. The same rising ocean will lap further and further up our shores, as the same strain of demagogue will attempt to take advantage of the fear generated amongst publics.

There is by now an iconic cartoon in which an audience member asks a presenter ‘What if it’s a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?’. One noteworthy 2018 study has found that creating this better world will save us, not cost us, $26 trillion by 2030 if we act meaningfully on climate change (not considering the incalculable benefit of preventing deaths and reducing general misery). The biggest losers will be the short-term profits of the fossil fuel industry and its investors. Provided there is effective policy to help us cross the bridge, such as a just transition for relevant industries, and measures to soften the blow of temporarily increasing prices as we transition off of fossil fuel technology, halt and reverse deforestation, and shift to regenerative agriculture, the rest of us will gain in every sense of the word. Using positive framing, the pandemic could get us communally energised to tackle climate change, to fill the uncertainty that has come to define the last few years with pursuit of a common goal – to overcome an existential crisis. In the sentiment of emerging green (new) deal policy proposals, the climate crisis allows us an opportunity to defeat other global ills, notably biodiversity loss, poverty, and gender and economic inequality. We know, as with COVID-19, that it won’t be easy, but that we will come out the other side happier, safer and more prosperous – as will the whole future of humanity. Moreover, we can hustle far, far faster than we have been told we can. Let’s get through this pandemic with our covid-tude, and during the next decade of struggle lying before us, let’s show some clima-tude.

The post From covid-tude to clima-tude (part 2/2) appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

This pandemic and the nature of our response to it, is unprecedented within our lifetimes. Affected societies have adopted a mode of solidarity and sacrifice towards achieving an explicit goal – mitigate and ultimately stop a novel virus, which threatens to overwhelm global society. Conceptually, one could take the last part of this sentence, replace ‘a novel virus’ with ‘climate change’, spread out the timeline and have it remain a meaningful statement.

It would be unrealistic to propose that we observe the same behaviour of isolating ourselves and press the hibernate button on economic activity. Instead, I am proposing that we all (emphasis on all) take seriously a threat that a different set of experts tell us is very real, is happening right now, and has a window of opportunity within which to act meaningfully.

The two crises are intertwined in at least one important way: given that climate change and biodiversity loss increase the risk of pandemic, COVID-19 stands figuratively as the smallest within a set of Russian dolls, nested inside the progressively larger dolls of global change (a term describing climate change, biodiversity loss, overhunting, altered biogeochemical cycles, invasive species and other planetary-scale changes caused by humans). Naturally, however, there are also fundamental differences between pandemics and climate change, perhaps the most obvious being that pandemics target the physiological health of our species, rather than directly undermining the basis of our livelihoods, security and well-being: ecosystems and the free services they provide, and the chemical and physical properties of the atmosphere, land and oceans. Pandemics are short-lived, even as their effects have lasting ramifications, while climate change is enduring and potentially irreversible. While the pandemic is primarily a public health crisis, climate change is a public health crisis and then some. Pandemics have immediate, visible effects – hospital beds filling up, running out of stock of ventilators and diagnostic kits, the race for vaccine development. Climate change occurs frame-by-frame and is difficult to tease apart from historically occurring phenomena: natural disasters, socio-political tensions, famine. Lastly, meaningful action on climate change involves systemic changes to infrastructure and institutions, permanent and deep change that not only deals with the crisis but gears the whole of our societies to be sustainable, so as to avert future crises.

However, similarities can be drawn, and lessons learnt. People have experienced firsthand that the world does not implode if our lifestyles change quite suddenly – even as the most vulnerable are having a hard time of it – and that we have the resources and flexibility to adapt. While the situation could not go on such as it is, and need not, what we can take from this experience is that the blueprints we have for our societies as they are now, are not set in stone. The economy would not wither if we don’t build that highway that shaves six minutes off average commuter times, and our life support system does not hinge on consumerism and indulgence. Many people can work and pay bills and communicate effectively and need not travel across the country or across continents to achieve the same results. We still go on breathing, living, nurturing and loving, albeit loving from a distance. Where governments are supporting the most vulnerable of their populations, everyone can still access the essentials – food, water, medicine, even online education. We feel united, as we would fighting climate change, knowing that our sacrifice is eminently worth it.

Changing our lifestyles in response to crisis measures, with the retention of what is truly important for our wellbeing, is possible. Psychologists tell us that beyond a minimum level of wellbeing, it is not our suite of behaviours or goods consumption in of themselves, but rather the fact that the society around us has access to them, that drives us to feel an associated sense of dependency. In other words, we have wiggle room in more ways than what we may have perceived we did, and perhaps our limits of satisfaction are largely delineated by how much our peers have. During the COVID-19 crisis, we are more satisfied being cooped up in our houses knowing that others are, too. Meaningful action on climate change, to the wealthy and well-off, may feel like a sacrifice – frequent holidays abroad, buying imported foods, owning an SUV. To most of the rest of us, our lifestyles would not change as much as we are led to believe by professional climate change deniers and their equally ugly metamorphosis, climate change minimisers. This industry, which has been core to influencing public perception, and the political lobbying industry which has stymied a transition off of fossil fuels, has been funded by the well documented and continuing flow of billions of dollars, courtesy the fossil fuel industry.

If the politics shifted meaningfully, it would mean the domino-like declarations of climate emergencies across countries. This would place us on a war-like footing, as the science tells us is now necessary. If societies were then required to make adjustments to their lifestyles, while keeping the fundamentals of what creates a good life, change may well be far more acceptable. Knowing it was vital not only to our children’s, but also to our own survival, and that we were all making adjustments together, could give us the same resoluteness we now possess in changing our behaviour to kill the virus. With targeted policy, there would not likely be real drops in quality of life, and even putting aside the value of a safe climate system, in many instances changes could directly improve wellbeing – riding a bike and beefing up your cardiovascular health, paying less for electricity with government support to install solar panels on your roof, growing food in your back yard as a family- or friend-based activity and a form of green exercise. This could be part and parcel of clima-tude, the attitude required not only to deal with a crisis, but to actively improve your own and others wellbeing in the process.

While the above examples are of a personal and community nature, clima-tude must permeate into the regional, national and international spheres. Individual lifestyle changes alone are simply insufficient. But individual and community action can help galvanise connections with like-minded individuals and organisations, and spur powerful, broad-based action (a marketing trick Greenpeace has been using). This process is reflected in the pandemic, where action scales from the individual, to local municipalities, and right up to international organisations such as WHO and the UN. Nothing less than a global effort is required to tackle both pandemics and climate change.

IPCC scientists definitively told us in 2018 that we have just a short window to address climate change, by now amounting to a fall in emissions of 7.6% per year between now and 2030, to stand a chance of limiting global warming to below a 1.5°C rise in temperatures. They tell us that this would require ‘‘rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society’’. This threshold is regarded as the ‘safe limit’, even though millions are currently unsafe and dying because of climate change and coal pollution. We have the technological and financial resources to achieve this, but up until now have lacked the political will. In a well-functioning democracy, the electorate is the lever which generates this political will. A ruling party that fails in mobilising resources to fend off the spread of COVID-19, will fail in their re-election bid. The franchise, and other tools in our civic toolbox, are the most fundamental means we have in realising our collective power to deal with climate change. We will only be in this position for a limited period of time, and we have already seen the results of even a slight lag in confronting COVID-19. Will you be able to look back in 2035 or beyond, when widespread food and water shortages emerge, crises to make COVID-19 look tame, and say that you did everything reasonable in your power to help avert that situation? Perhaps the next decree to stay in our homes comes not due to a pandemic, but to wars that originate out of geopolitical tensions, driven by multiple, interacting climate change impacts. If pandemics can happen again, so can wars between blocs of countries, developed and developing.

Part 2 will follow soon.

The post From covid-tude to clima-tude (part 1/2) appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

Could you please take a minute to reflect on what you think this might mean?

Did you? Good!

I am sure you came up with a great thought! Still, I would like to share with you my perspective.

Planet Earth represents the all and you are the one! Well … Not just you. You, me and every living being consists – individually – in one element in this huge planet. In this context, the cycle of life goes on and never stops. As seasons change, each component experiences life, death and life again. Every unit is transformed but is still part of the all. In the all, we are connected and we come together as one!

Does that make sense to you?

As one, we – the entire world – are currently facing a pandemic, and this is not breaking news, I know! Nevertheless, we have been called attention to open our eyes to our planet, our home, to our neighbours, colleagues and everyone, regardless if we are acquainted with them or not. This moment, nature, in the verge of a tipping point, calls us out to stop and open our eyes to all the damage humans – us – have been causing in this world.

It has not been easy. Ever! Climate change, deforestation, pollution, extinction, consumerism, disturbance of natural cycles and processes. Poverty, hunger, gender inequality, discrimination, no access to health nor education and so many other issues! We debate, we disagree, we don’t believe. But the fact is that it is difficult to endure and mitigate certain situations as ONE, as people from different backgrounds (geographical, economic, social) live contrasting realities and face distinctive hardships.

It is impactful to me how this 2020 Coronavirus pandemic is practically making the world stop. However, this should not shock me as much considering that this is not the first pandemic that the world has ever faced. In the history of pandemics^[1], the one that caused more deaths is the Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death. This records the 14^th century and it was a disease originated in rats and had fleas as vectors to humans. It is estimated that half of the European population died during this period.

The second greatest pandemic is Smallpox in 1520, that killed approximately 90% of Native Americans, and registered a number of around 400.000 dead people annually in Europe in the 19^th century. That was when the first vaccine for Smallpox was created. Don’t be alarmed! I am not trying to scare you!

Amongst many other pandemics, more recent ones, that always pop up in our minds – now thinking about the Coronavirus – are the Swine Flu and the Ebola. Let’s not forget that HIV/AIDS was also considered as a pandemic! And even though there is not a cure yet, there are medicines to treat and effective ways of prevention.

Still, somehow, the COVID-19 pandemic feels different. And some reasons are: it is a new virus, scientists and researchers are still understanding and learning about this new form; and, it is a current outbreak which increases every minute. Moreover, today, we live in a 24/7 online world, and as news travel as rapid as ever before, so does fear … But, so does hope!

Just like the union that has been rising to change this situation, we as individuals can grow stronger, selfless, caring and active! In this moment, when we experience this necessary quarantine, we have the opportunity to reflect on how our actions have been impacting our planet. We have the chance to understand that we are a part of one universe and, although we may feel small, we can shape the world around us. As environmental leaders and advocates, we can promote more dialogues and discussions to raise awareness and solutions about Earth’s urgent agenda! And I know you have already been doing this and that you try every day!

But as all of us, inhabitants of the Earth, take a step back to deal with this new virus, let’s take this time of union and connectedness to glimpse together the rise of a new dawn! There is hope of a turn in events when everybody engages to reach the goal that benefits the ONE (planet). We should stand together as every fight is a fight of ALL of us, to protect our home and ensure the existence and resources for the sake of the environment, ourselves and future generations. We can do this! Because now is ALL FOR ONE!

Reference:

Pandemics^[1] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-deadliest/

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