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* The slide that COVID-19 couldn't halt

..and more

This pandemic is only a short breather for nature

>» The slide that COVID-19 couldn't halt

Matthew Fraser
Opinions Editor

 

hey say there is a silver lining to

every cloud ora little bit of good in
anything that’s bad. Clichés like “smile
through the rain” or “always look on the
bright side of life” are in full effect during
times like these. Shortly after everyone
was relegated to their quarantine abodes,
memes began to abound about mother
nature putting her most unruly species in
a timeout. No Instagram scroll was safe
from the “nature just hit reset” post. But is
COVID-19 actually beneficial for nature?
Has the confinement of humanity to the
comfortable cages of our own design really
been beneficial, or is it just a naive attempt
from a few to console the many?

Stories littered social media in no
time about the miraculous recovery and
reinstatement of nature as the human race
was locked down. Videos of mountain
goats investigating Llandudno, North
Wales, produced “oohs” and “aahs;”
pictures of animals let out to meet their
zoo cellmates brought smiles to faces
young and old. Then came the stories of
swans returning to the canals of Venice
and drunken elephant parties in Yunnan,
China; unfortunately, half of the above
were hoaxes.

Ina National Geographic fact check,
Natasha Daly explains that those elephants
are a common sight in Yunnan and that
the clear waters and swans “returning” to

Venice are actually pictures from Burano
and quite common there in fact. Even the
best of news, like the return of fin whales
to Mediterranean waters or the decreased
COz levels in China, are but temporary
postponements for our embattled planet.
Once boats return to the marinas, the
serene whales will retreat—and as the
Chinese population returns to health

and its inevitable work, so will CO2 levels
return to their previous stations. Human
adaptation and greed have once again
outpaced nature’s ability to reform and
recuperate.

Worse still is the damage that the
pandemic has done to the climate change
effort. We have been told time and time
again that climate change requires a
global effort to avert the slow slide that
could imperil the future of humanity.

Even though the temporary drop in CO2
levels was good, the unfortunate reality

is that COz2 stays in our atmosphere for
centuries. The small breather looked good
on Facebook, but it was all but meaningless
to the world at large. While some decry the
return of China to its old polluting ways,
they are certainly glad that the country has
returned to producing two thirds of the
world's solar panels. For all of its expulsion
of greenhouse gases, China is the leading
producer of wind turbines, lithium ion
batteries, and the solar panels that underlie
any great climate activist’s dream.

More importantly than the production
of clean energy devices is the clearly

tenuous nature of global
alliances; the EU wasted no time
in blocking out Italy and Spain
from its resource sharing as their
death tolls rose. Unlike in our
favorite blockbuster movies,
global leaders could not in

fact put aside their differences
long enough to face down the
existential threat. As a matter
of fact, this pandemic may have
driven many countries even
further from cooperation. The
nasty spat between Taiwan

and Director-General Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the
WHO is certainly an example.
The WHO, despite Taiwan’s
stellar health care record,
refuses year after year to permit
the eager country entry into

the organization. Tedros has
accused Taiwan of permitting
attacks against his person. The blustering
exchange of threats between Venezuela's
Maduro and Donald Trump is also an
example. We may be even further from
the united effort necessary to curb global
warming than we were in December when
the UN COP25 ended in shambles.

Like so many unruly children, political
leaders have managed to confuse the
pandemic response and even reversed some
of the forward progress of the years gone
by. Many leaders are doing so in an effort to
further nationalistic goals that could prove

  

Photo by Billy Bui

worthless if the global economy crashes or
if the temperature rises.

Just the other day, I saw a picture
joking that dodos had returned to
Mauritius after humans had disappeared;
the unfortunate reality of extinction is
that once gone, there really is no way
back. Whether it’s extinction by a new
and currently unknown zoonotic disease,
or the widespread inability to set aside
difference and self-interest for the greater
good, humanity has its work cut out before
it can celebrate some free running penguin
videos.

A few revelations that COVID-19 has to offer
H

» Working for home is simple and billionaires haven't donated enough

Tania Arora
Staff Writer

 

Sr COVID-19 has unfolded, it’s great
to see the way governments around the
world have worked together and various
business organizations everywhere are
handling it. There are many silver linings
to look to.

China is now beginning to recover
from the outbreak and resumed regular
life, and hopefully our norm is near too. It
is still a question as to whether the virus
originated in bats or if it was artificially
created; it might take months or even years
for the truth to be unraveled. Regardless of
the uncertainty this outbreak has wrecked,
we have been gifted with numerous
revelations:

1. A 2015 study conducted by Tammy D.
Allen, Timothy D. Golden, and Kristen M.
Shockley showed that remote work was
worse for team cohesion and productivity.
There have been tons of similar research
and reports released stating that
productivity would decreased if people
were to work from home. However,

businesses have been forced to attempt

it, and luckily they are running mostly
without any hindrances. The pandemic has
given a clear message to human resource
teams and business owners: it is possible
for people to work from home and can be
granted if required.

2. The government needs to build up
a greater medical system which can
accommodate people. Our current medical
system has been exposed as inadequate,
and it is clear now that it is in dire need
of expansions. We need to strengthen our
medical force and further medical research
and funding in order to create a more
efficient system.

Not only that, we need to properly
compensate our critical medical staff
and even the frontline workers of our
supply chains. It took this entire ruckus
for us to realize that nurses, doctors,
and even grocery store employees are
undercompensated.

3. Is every billionaire actually a billionaire?
In early April, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey
pledged $1 billion to vaccine research in
order to “disarm the pandemic.” Later, Bill

Gates donated $100 million towards
the fight—prompting Jeff Bezos to
do the same. Many other wealthy
individuals have committed

to the fight, yet the amount of
money generated seems woefully
inadequate given the billions of
people alive today. Where are the
others hiding with their money?

4. From the largest of countries
to the smallest of nations, the
coronavirus response has been
different. From varying levels of
testing to complete economic shutdowns,
the world community has shown that

not one method can perfectly attack this
problem. However, the importance of
quick thinking, decisive decision making,
and a well-informed population has proven
to be the greatest marker of good results.
Though methods practiced in Russia may
not fare as well in South Korea, the end
result has been good.

5. Lastly, if we compare Canada to the rest
of the world, the country lies in the list

of developed countries. But our home is
still not perfect if compared to the states

 

or the rest; the reasons for which could be
myriad. Though Canada is a developed
country it is clear that much work needs to
be done for our future.

I think that our taxes should be better
funneled into medical care and other
emergency services without the stunning
levels of bureaucracy that we currently
face. It should take days—not months or
even years for needed fund allocation to
go through. Though Canadas population
is aging, we can see that our health care
system has some bloat. It instead could
be as efficient as the systems employed in
other developed countries.