For as much as COVID-19 has caused so many negative issues to occur on the health front, the financial front, and even the domestic front in our very homes, there has been a noticeable blessing around the world that’s come from it as well. Our air has become cleaner and clearer and so has our bodies of water too, which are two things we absolutely need for survival in this world, and two things that up until this pandemic, have worsened year to year because of our utter disregard and neglect for the Earth.
I personally witnessed this COVID blessing recently with something I never thought I would at the Marblehead Lighthouse on Memorial Day in Marblehead, Ohio, when I walked over to the water and saw how blue it actually was, given every other time I’ve been there or at any other part of the Lake Erie Shores where it’s always been cloudy, murky, and generally dirty in appearance.
All around the world there have been plenty of reports of things just like this with cities that normally are filled with pollution having much fresher air. Views of mountains off in the distance that haven’t been visible for decades now in crystal clear view. Smog disappearing from cities that normally are quite clogged with it. And water qualities becoming translucent in places it never was or hasn’t been in a very long time.
You would think experiencing this would be a strong wake-up call for all of us to see how easily it could be for our planet to have better air and water quality in our lives. But I was grossly reminded of the ignorance of the human population in general when it comes to protecting nature with the amount of people I’ve seen during this pandemic throwing trash out their car doors and windows, including far too many of those protective masks people have been asked to wear when out in public. It’s sad to say, but watching people just throw their trash upon our Earth with no respect for it tells me that we haven’t learned our lesson yet. A lesson that has led me to believe that COVID-19 didn’t come from some lab, or some bat soup, or from 5G towers, or anything of the sort. Rather, I’ve often pondered whether it actually came from the Earth itself. Some may think I’m crazy for even suggesting that, but I have truly wondered if the Earth was trying to get our attention.
If it was, it feels like we still aren’t listening as a whole, because beyond the constant littering I keep seeing, people seem to be more worried about life resuming back to the normal we had, then thinking about these two key elements we need for survival, that being air and water, and how much better both have been in the past bunch of months all around the world. The fact is, why aren’t more of us focused on protecting these critical life staples instead of being mostly focused on our economy and money getting restored?
I mean seriously, purely hypothetically speaking because of course I have no proof, but what if all this pollution we put into our air and water over the years is precisely what did cause COVID-19 to occur? And what if COVID-19 could be just the beginning of the Earth getting our attention? Even worse, what if there was a COVID-20, or 21, or some another pandemic to follow only because we aren’t getting the message? The message that what’s most important in the world is the very nature we live off of, not the money that goes in our pockets or the things we purchase with it.
Here’s the simple reality of my argument here that so many of us seem to be forgetting. The more unclean our air gets and the dirtier our water becomes, the unhealthier our animals, plants, and vegetables get that require both for survival, and the unhealthier we get as a result as well, since each are the food we need for survival.
So, in light of that, maybe our focus shouldn’t be on life getting back to the “normal” we had before COVID-19. Maybe our focus needs to be more on what we are going to do to keep this beautifully cleaner air and water around for longer than just a stay-at-home life that brought it about. Because there might come a day where our air and waters are so polluted that there will be far worse pandemics than COVID-19 to ravage our planet as a result…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
