In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysia implemented a nationwide lockdown on March 18th, 2020. Many citizens were stuck at home, which proved detrimental to their mental wellbeing. As a current Year 11 student, I have spent a significant portion of Year 10 at home doing distance learning. It was mentally and physically stressful to stare at the screen for the whole day.
During this lockdown, I had a chance to participate in an essay competition with the topic of “Impact of Lockdown on Our Planet”. Through this competition, I was exposed to tons of information on how the environment has changed since the lockdown started.
Despite the world being in crisis, the natural environment did not seem to go through the same problems as us. Over the course of the 2020 lockdown, the CO2 emissions in Malaysia decreased by 9.7%. The world’s CO2 emissions decreased by 4.3% from March to July 2020. A fact that surprised me the most was from the Himalayas in India. Thanks to improved air quality due to fewer greenhouse gas emissions, the Himalayas became visible to the citizens of India for the first time in decades. Many endangered species such as sea turtles and puma were also spotted in the tourist destinations which had been crowded with thousands of tourists just a few months prior.
Sadly, after the lockdown was lifted, the air pollution level and CO2 emissions increased back to normal. Even though it was a short improvement, this proved the negative human impacts on the natural environment.
This experience changed my view of lockdown and the human impact on the environment. I would like to conclude this article with the last part of my essay:
“The current situation made many parts of the global society suffer, but also showed hope in areas, especially the environment. Looking at some parts of nature thriving without human presence, we as humans should look back on the impactful actions that we wielded without considering the consequences and strive to look for ways to minimize the effect of destruction that we caused to planet Earth. We have seen multiple occasions where the world came together to overcome a common obstacle that is hindering our future. Like our previous success, I hope that in the near future, humans will achieve both the cessation of COVID-19 and the protection of the Earth.”
What are your thoughts after reading this article? Feel free to leave your opinions in the comment section below!
Author: Angela
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