A commentary by the executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance.
“In crisis lies opportunity,” so the maxim goes. As terrible as COVID-19 is, the resulting lockdown has given us a vital opportunity.
We have the greatest chance to reconnect with the natural world with which so much of humanity has lost touch, at the same time breaking our unhealthy indoor isolation.
Social distancing — more precisely, “physical distancing” — doesn’t always require an indoor lockdown. There is another option — going outdoors into nature.
Many have abruptly found themselves free to go outside while the sun is high in the sky — and can do this every day.
The fact is that staying two metres away from the next person is generally much easier in a park, forest, wetland, meadow, or seashore than it is inside a grocery store, as the outside world is far vaster than the indoor world. (There are some caveats which I will mention.)
Public authorities should encourage those not quarantined to use green spaces responsibly. We can go outdoors safely if we’re alone or with housemates. By exercising our hearts, filling our lungs with fresh air, calming our anxieties and connecting with the much greater, conscious, living world, we will lift our spirits, improve our health, boost our immune systems, and expand our awareness.
Even in normal times, excursions into nature remedy many of the chronic ailments of industrial society: Heart disease, high blood pressure, inflammation, depression, and addiction — the latter including excessive “screen time” and obsession with a virtual world instead of the real one. An indoor lockdown exacerbates many of these ailments, as well as resulting in skyrocketing rates of domestic abuse.
Research shows that nature supports our physical health in many ways. Trees filter out pollutants like nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone that cause asthma. Recent studies show that trees emit compounds known as phytoncides that we breathe in, boosting our production of white blood cells.
Our lack of contact with the diversity of beneficial micro-organisms in nature may be linked to the prevalence of asthma, allergies, compromised immune systems, autoimmune disorders, and other ailments. Nature naturally filters our drinking water, stabilizes our hillsides, protects us from floods, and regulates our climate.
Natural systems are also good for our financial well-being: A study at Simon Fraser University showed that protecting old-growth forests in southwestern British Columbia is more valuable economically than logging, once you’ve factored in tourism, recreation, clean water, fishing, mushroom harvesting, and carbon offsets.
While closing areas where large numbers congregate makes sense — for example, playgrounds and certain park facilities – a blanket closure of all parks and protected areas should be avoided.
Alas, the B.C. government has recently closed all provincial parks indefinitely, though many regional parks and city parks remain open (check online for closures).
Nature is vital for our well-being — it is an “essential service”.
Government should regulate visitor densities to popular parks where needed in the same way that entrances to supermarkets and pharmacies are regulated, or by limiting parking. It should inform visitors how to responsibly enjoy their excursions, including social distancing, being self-sufficient in food, water, first aid, and fuel in order to avoid vulnerable gateway communities, to generally stay local, and to refrain from high-risk activities so as not to burden the medical system.
Asking people to visit local suburban woodlots, fields and wetlands, or natural areas on unprotected public or “Crown” lands in their regions, can also reduce crowding in our parks system — which is evidence that we need many more parks and protected areas.
More fundamentally, expanding our protected areas system is vital because the large-scale protection of nature is the key game-changer needed to avert both the extinction and the climate crises.
Nature “draws down” vast amounts of atmospheric carbon, which can allow us to meet ourinternational climate target to limit the global temperate rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (which avoids the worst climate impacts) if combined with emissions reductions. Recent research shows that protecting about 50 per cent of the planet by 2030 can enable us to meet our target.
If we choose, the COVID-19 crisis might result in a mass reflection, reconnection, and redirection of our society for the better.
To rediscover native ecosystems is to rediscover our home for 99 per cent of our evolution, and which is still home to millions of species, numerous Indigenous cultures, and systems of ecological relationships and processes that enable us to flourish.
Ultimately, doing so may lay the foundation for the needed cultural, economic, and societal overhaul to save ourselves and the diversity of life on Earth.
