What Life After Covid19?
Now it’s time to change our lifestyle.
Imagine a beautiful evening in Santorini island; eating steak, enjoying the incredible view and already daydreaming about spending the next vacation in Uroa bay beach. It might sound familiar for many of us who thought staying home for vacation sounds crazy! Seriously… why would you stay home while there are countless unique places on the planet to explore?
Suddenly Coronavirus jumps from an animal to a human in Wuhan seafood market where wild animals, including marmots, birds, rabbits, bats and snakes, are traded illegally. It spreads around the world, affecting our vacation plans and more severe than that our jobs, mental and physical health in only a few weeks.
When Covid19 hit, I was naively happy for our planet because the CO2 emission temporarily reduced. But soon I realised the horrible impacts of the Covid19, such as losing our dearests. Unfortunately, Covid19 hit the most vulnerable hardest.
Today if you still have a roof, food to eat and access to the internet, you have a luxury life, because millions of children worldwide had to drop the school, missing out on critical health services and information and no longer having access to a regular meal.
When Covid19 started spreading worldwide, not many people could see the world change in 6 months. Many people began to worry and google about the Covid19 impacts on our lives in Feb 2020 because Covid19 is pressing us to do so, think ahead and as our instinct; to find the best ways to survive. Covid19 is pressing us to do so, think ahead and as our instinct; to find the best ways to survive.
Before Covid19 almost no one knew such a threat exists and could avoid it by invading less in wild animals’ habitats.
Nowadays, every news channel is talking about a vaccine; everyone is looking forward to going back to normal, but what is normal? Is the coronavirus the only threat humans would face today?
The solution is not to react based on our instinct to an urgent problem but think ahead and act in time to avoid another disaster.
Not long ago Australia’s bush-fires burnt an estimated 18.6 million hectares, destroyed over 5,900 buildings (including 2,779 homes), killed at least 34 people and emitted millions of tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere. The number of bush-fires around the globe is raising yet that is another avoidable threat!
“Global warming boosted the risk of the hot, dry weather that’s likely to cause bushfires by at least 30%.” BBC Science Correspondence By Pallab Ghosh
During Australia’s bush-fires, I was disappointed by the media coverage. Millions of animals were burnt, and millions more were in danger, yet the media focused on hundreds of different topics than the bush-fires or global warming as the number one threat! I also found out most people I know are not interested in this topic or don’t want to talk about it.
In 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Yuval Noah Harari wrote:
“Billions of us can hardly afford the luxury of investigating because we have more pressing things to do: we have to go to work, take care of kids, or look after elderly parents.
Unfortunately, history gives no discounts. If humanity's future is decided in your absence because you are too busy feeding and clothing your kids — you and them will not be exempt from the consequences. This is very unfair; but who said history was fair?”
I wonder if we think about the global warming threat enough? Apart from our governments, it’s also our responsibility to read about global warming, reduce our ecological footprint and understand the next generation’s concerns *now*. I wish all humans would seriously take the climate change threat before seeing another disaster like a bush-fire around. Here are some basic actions you can take toward a more ecological world:
- Take fewer flights and limit our travels.
- Eat more vegetarian or vegan meals.
- Buy fewer clothes, and have a strategy in purchasing any new piece of clothes.
- Invest in green energy and sustainable companies’ stocks rather than the most profitable ones.
- Support education programs in third world countries.
*Now* is the time to decide about our lifestyle after Covid19!
