The outbreak of Coronavirus disease has brought the world to an unusual halt for a long time period. Around half of humanity is under complete lockdown with near-zero movement of humans, vehicles, airplanes, and almost everything which qualifies as ‘non-essential’ human activity.
This unusual halt has made the natural environment around us better, with birds chirping, wildlife animals on roads, dark blue sky- a rare phenomenon in non-coastal cities- and better visibility of stars in the night. The average temperature has gone down, the air we breathe is cleaner, the water in our otherwise polluted rivers is cleaner, and our lungs are getting more rest- all thanks to the Coronavirus induced lockdown.
But in the meantime, we also realized that a squeaky clean environment is not affordable for humanity as of yet, because the majority of the people are bored from sitting idle at home, and those who thought that their boss is so benevolent after getting a work-from-home pass have realized that, if forced for a long time period, it is not such a great idea.
However, for eco-fascists, this is the moment of bliss. Their dreams have come true! And therefore, they are arguing that Coronavirus is nature’s way of punishing human beings for their excesses with the surroundings. The environmentalists have given a clean chit to China and WHO- the two entities responsible for bringing this on humanity- and blamed it all human beings around the globe.
The environmentalists are arguing that the ongoing stage of lockdown should be the ‘new normal’ and should humans increase their activities once the pandemic is over, they should brace for many more such pandemics.
The Guardian, UK based mouthpiece of Fabian socialists published an article titled ‘Tip of the iceberg’: is our destruction of nature responsible for COVID-19 written by John Vidal, former environment editor of the newspaper. Resorting to fear-mongering that is so typical of environmentalists, Vidal argued- “As habitat and biodiversity loss increase globally, the coronavirus outbreak may be just the beginning of mass pandemics.”
In the article, Vidal criticized everything that was not related to the current pandemic, right from ‘free markets’ to mining and increased human activity, but gave a free pass to China and WHO.
In another article published in the same newspaper, the current environment editor Damian Carrington argued that an increase in air pollution might increase death rate (although he presented to scientific evidence or data), and subtly hinted that a complete lockdown should be imposed for a long period of time.
The United Nations Environment Programme also gave a free pass to China like its public heath counterpart- WHO- and made a video arguing Coronavirus is a message from nature. The one minute 19 seconds video was published under the title- A message from nature: Coronavirus- on the UN Environment website.
In India, many websites like Downtoearth published articles under title Sounds of Birds replace noise pollution in Kolkata, subtly appreciating the reclamation of city space. ThePrint, a digital portal, published a story by Unnati Sharma titled, ‘Animals have come home. COVID-19 lockdown gives control back into nature’s hands’ insinuating that Humans are illegal claimants of mother earth. “With people in India and elsewhere locked down in homes due to the coronavirus, the peaceful reclamation of public spaces by animals is teaching us important lessons,” she further argued.
The eco-fascists, who are celebrating nature’s ‘revenge’, have obviously forgotten the plight of millions of poor workers who lost jobs and livelihoods due to lockdown. Sitting in their comfortable plus size houses, the eco-fascists are sharing the images of their surroundings which have suddenly become very beautiful- their claim- due to lockdown. A few weeks ago, the eco-fascists who are now sharing images of surroundings on social media, had shared images of plight of migrants workers who are returning home after lockdown.