By Nurfatihah Irdina
In a matter of months, the liberty we humans possess to roam the streets freely has been transformed.
In Kuala Lumpur, the once normal bustling of city streets, warungs and mamak restaurants filled with everyday noise of Malaysians cheering and chattering at the wee hours, have been silenced to the quiet corners of the earth and people are told to “Stay in and Stay Safe” in their homes for the next two weeks.
That’s the directive and advice that came from our Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, in an effort to curb the spread the COVID-19 pandemic. among the people.
In fact, all countries around the world have taken a stand in weathering this tumultuous time. The preventive measures taken by the government that is the lockdown, social-distancing, self-isolation, work from home, home-based teaching, abrupt ban in both domestic and international travelling across the world, have been implemented all over most infected countries such as China, United States, Italy and the South East Asia countries in order to contain and mitigate the spread of the disease.
As we continue to encroach on maintaining the wheel of preventive measures in conjunction with the overwhelming number of death tolls that surges every day due to COVID-19, consequently affecting the lives of more than 70,000 people today, ironically the steps taken have given beneficial results in terms of the environment.
Despite the COVID-19 storm raging today and for the past months, the silver lining of it all is that the earth is no doubt heading towards a slightly healthier condition, so they say. China has reported a significant drop of air pollution commonly contributed by vehicle emission particles such as cars, trucks, power plants and some industrial plants; mainly gases of nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide. Along with the shutting down of factories and heavy industries showed a positive impact on China’s air quality.
In addition, the New York Times has reported “huge declines in pollution over major metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Chicago and Atlanta” which in turn contributes to the declining of carbon dioxide emissions as folks begin to practice social distancing simultaneously lessening transportation activities altogether.
There is no lie in the truth, as time and time again in this crisis, has proven that parts of mother earth are naturally healing as proven by satellite imagery. Satellite imagery alone is not as convincing when one does not experience it as a whole.
These days even during these trying times, some creatures are still trying to co-exist side by side with human beings. Early mornings nowadays will hear noise of birds chirping, soundly equipped with the freedom granted to fly in the space where mankind no longer set rules to abide by in this period of social distancing.
Even in Malaysia, the Environment and Water Minister, Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, has said that during this period of Movement Control Order (MCO), there is a reduction in industrial stack emission and open burning, in addition, a decrease of fine particles of 2.5 micron in air quality content.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, but in this case it’s the animal’s treasure. The absence of our mandatory day-to-day human activities on the streets has led to the animal kingdom rejoicing over our absence on the streets.
In Italy, dolphins are seen at the country’s coast, vibrant blue water inviting wildlife to the Venice canals, as a result of halting docking cruise ships.
A civet cat was sighted roaming the empty streets of Kozhikode, Kerala, in India. Meanwhile in Santiago, Chile, a puma was reportedly seen.
The question is, when normalcy returns and when it is expected of us humans to return to our old ways, will this life-changing event that has altered our course of history be an eye-opener for us to finally come to our senses that the earth and the people are one and the same?
Both can flourish in equal measure for the condition of the earth impact that of humans, simultaneously human activities impact the health of the Mother Earth itself.***