As a human being, I am very grateful to Covid-19. Before this pandemic came along the governments had the people convinced that keeping the economy steaming along was the most important thing, and that we had to keep it growing, at all costs. No scientific evidence, no matter how dire, was important enough to halt the harm we were imposing on the environment or stop us from looking after the number one thing: the economy.
In the year 2020 humankind’s carbon emissions went down by a record amount. Governments listened to scientists in regards to the pandemic, and proudly boasted that they were making decisions based on science. They put the brakes on the precious economy. If they can pay attention to scientists to protect human health, they can pay attention to scientists to protect our environment, and now, everybody knows it.
Problem is, they have now gone into so much debt that they plan to go into even more debt to get the economy steaming along again. The environment and its trusty scientists will be told to sit in the back seat again, and the Chamber of Commerce will prevail. Governments won’t, or perhaps can’t, do anything to change the equation, unless the people vote to force them to.
We need to stop exploiting our beautiful planet and learn to live within our means. No more willy-nilly flying, no more cruise ships, no more ridiculous over-production and over-consumption. It is the only way we survive in the long run. Most importantly, we need to find a way to humanely reduce our population, before Mother Nature does it for us.
Rod Retzlaff
Glade