Years of human struggle for the defense of the environment, but just when man has stopped, the quality of the environment has improved. Is man the friend or the enemy of nature? What have been the consequences of a global pandemic on the great environmental giant?
According to the scientific community, the response to the climate emergency we are experiencing, would require more attention and control from governments. Instead, the last United Nations Climate Conference held in Madrid in December 2019, didn’t produce particular results and postponed the commitments in view of the next meeting to be held at the end of 2020, when the Paris Agreement on climate of 2015 will be active (which sets precise objectives for limiting global warming). Today, however, after the coronavirus experience, we have had confirmation of the fact that the emergency is more active than ever and that men, with single gestures, can change (even radically) the state of health of the environment.
Specialists say that the main consequences of the lockdown were a reduction of almost 50% (especially in large cities) of carbon monoxide and CO2, resulting in better air quality, and a reduction in noise pollution, due, between the many things, to the non-use of transports and vehicles that fill cities every day in every corner, the stop of the emission of polluting gases from companies, the stop of airlines and many other things. The collapse of carbon emissions has also caused a drop in air pollutants in several countries, first of all China. It is, in fact, the largest producer and consumer of coal, with a percentage of 58%. According to a study published in the Washington Post, during these months of pandemic and lockdown, the most important reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants of the last century has taken place.
So, faced with cleaner air and the images of Venice's canals with clear waters and animals returning to repopulate the woods, we wonder if the consequences of stopping human circulation had only positive effects on the impact environmental. The answer, even in this case, is negative: men, even if they stopped, still continued to damage the environment due, for example, to the increase in waste production (an impact of 1 billion euro on the sector). Since everyone is at home, the demand for plastic products has increased, such as disposable plates and cups, to which all the disposable equipment required and used by the various companies for compliance with anti-contagion regulations must then be added. According to reports, just in the city of Wuhan (center of the Covid-19 epidemic) waste has increased to around 200 tons per day.
Thus, men have been nature's helpers and killers in recent months. what will happen from now on? Will we be able to carry on what is positive and reduce what negative we are creating, learning from lived experience? An Italian poet, Manzoni, says in the central part of his most famous ode: "ai posteri, l’ardua sentenza"
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