Mother Earth is Healing 

By Ella Diamond (‘20) and Madeline Ramirez (‘21) 

While we are panicking about COVID-19, Mother Earth is healing. Even though there are many consequences to the horrible CoronaVirus, some benefits are arising from this virus. Because cities have been put under lockdown, people are forced to stay at home unless it is necessary to attend their jobs. This has caused a huge impact on lives. 

Factory chimneys spew pollution: a normal sight prior to the quarantine. 

A factory in Trento, Italy now at a standstill. 

Not all factory jobs are considered essential, so many workers have gone home. Due to the fact that factories are no longer producing toxins that are polluting our air, the skies have started to clear up. A second reason our air has started to be less polluted is because there is much less traffic on the roads. People are now only leaving their homes to buy groceries. This alleviates all of the unnecessary travel to the mall or anywhere else people might go. 

A typical Sunday before the epidemic in Galle Face park in Colombo, Sri Lanka. 

Galle Face park during the quarantine; the lack of human feet has allowed the grass to regrow plush and green.  

 Another place people have seen improvements due to CoronaVirus is in the canals that run through the beautiful, winding streets of Venice, Italy. There, people have been kept in even harsher conditions, not even allowed to leave their homes for recreational activities such as walking. This has led to less pollution in the canals. People are no longer throwing their trash into the canals, and the pollution in the air isn’t entering these man-made rivers. Because of this, people have noticed that the waters look crystal clear and that they can even see fish. 

The recent lack of visitors to Venice has helped bring clean water back to the canals. 

In conclusion, even though this novel virus has taken so many things away from us, we need to start looking on the bright side. We need to start understanding that COVID-19 has given us a chance to make our world a greener and better place. This virus has given us time to think about the destructive path we are all going down, and it has given us a chance to think about what we can do about it. 

(All Photos: Wikimedia Commons)