EDITORIAL - Earth Day in the time of COVID-19

Today is Earth Day 2020. Considering that we are still under quarantine, it can be forgiven if many people forgot to keep track of this occasion.

What can’t be forgiven is if we continue carrying on the way we do abusing the only one world we have after this pandemic has ended.

It’s not that hard to dispute the many people, including the Pope, who are of the opinion that the coronavirus is actually the Earth’s response to our continued abuse of her, her solution to the human activities that cause even more climate change and bring us closer and closer to the point of no return.

Look at it this way, while we humans are suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Earth is practically thriving because of it.

Skies in many cities are blue and clear because factories have shut down and people aren’t using motor vehicles. Animals are returning to or frolicking in their natural habitats because of limited human activity. The hole in the ozone layer is healing because lesser harmful chemicals are being released into the air.

The Earth is doing great even as humans stay home and limit their social, economic, and political activities.

This Earth Day, let us be reminded that while the Earth doesn’t need us humans to survive, we certainly need it to live. This is one hard fact that we should not forget.

There is one way we can make it up to the Earth; we can make sure some environmental concerns are addressed before they become a problem.

Even as the pandemic rages on, there is another possible environmental crisis looming in the offing; the tons of plastic and garbage discarded by us in our war against the virus.

The COVID-19 pandemic has another by-product; discarded PPEs, gloves, suits, face masks, and other protective gear, among others. These hard-to-biodegrade materials are now in our landfills, streets, and even in our seas, thrown away so carelessly after they served their purpose.

It may not be much, but it’s somewhere to start on our way to fix the Earth we have abused for so long.