On Being Fragile
It took me years to realize how fragile I really am. Like many young people I was sheltered by parents and relatives from birth until my twenties. Food, clothing, and housing were a given and taken for granted as it is for eighty-five percent of the nation's children. Unless you are a struggling Native American (24%), Black (20%), or Hispanic (17%), life is fairly predictable. Ninety percent of white and Asian people consider themselves to be OK.
It takes a pandemic to realize that even OK people live on thin ice. Viruses, cancer, accidents, and immune disorders are not selective, though those who are well-off receive better care. Still, a pandemic makes us doubly conscious of the fragility of life.
Last week I became aware of my own frailty when I twisted my knee while getting out of a car. One second of inattention sent me crawling on the ground. Unable to walk, I was wheeled in mask and gloves through an empty clinic to be x-rayed by a similarly garbed technician. I felt vulnerable and wondered how I would have managed if I lived alone. What if I caught Covid-19 on top of my injury or if my partner became ill? Television images of sick people isolated from loved ones flashed through my mind, leaving me scared and feeling sorry for myself.
Thankfully my knee is healing. It is one-of-those-things that told me to slow down and be more careful. But awareness of how easy it is to shatter a body, made me think about the environment and how it is equally fragile. For over fifty years scientists and activists have warned us to alter our behavior, but it took a previously unknown micro-organism to force us do so.
Staying sequestered has lowered carbon emissions and kept roadways and forests free of discarded beer cans and MacDonald wrappers. Residents of smog filled cities can see the top of skyscrapers and report blue skies for the first time in years. With forty percent less domestic air traffic and fewer cars on the road, Bay area pollution decreased by 30 percent, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide is fifty percent lower in New York, and peak hour congestion in Seattle went down by forty-one percent.
Wildlife is saved from becoming roadkills, sea turtles give birth free from human interference, and uncut wildflowers add a swash of color to highways. The risk of asthma, heart attacks and lung disease worldwide has lessened and fish can again swim in clear rivers. I read that four thousand newborns in China are alive because of cleaner air.
Like it or not, we are getting used to working from home, Zooming into meetings, and take classes on line. Businesses say that post-pandemic, some of the ways they've been operating will remain. The question is how long this gift to the environmental will last.
The European Union took a positive step forward by announcing that the Green Deal must be at the heart of an "intelligent recovery." But, good intentions run up against what Canadian activist author Naomi Kline calls the "shock doctrine" of political capitalism. She writes of how the powerful global elite exploit national crises to push through unpopular measures around the environment and labor rights. We see this occurring in our country now.
The EPA announced that the Trump administration relaxed regulatory enforcements because of the pandemic, basically giving industry a license to pollute. The administration rolled back fuel-economy standards for the car industry for the same reason. Three states criminalized fossil fuel protesters and construction resumed on the KXL oil pipeline. The last economic stimulus bill passed by congress included a $50 billion bailout for aviation.
Since the start of the pandemic, several states banned reusable bags. We're reminded us that 1 billion trees per year are needed to package shipped goods. Plastic bag producers are celebrating the end of a ban designed to reduce ocean pollution. Requests by the airlines for relief from carbon offsets that were to begin this year are likely to be approved.
The problem is not exclusive to the United States. Poor nations with less money and personnel have pulled back efforts to conserve endangered species. Monitoring and protection operations were reined in in the Amazon rainforest. China historically responds to financial crisis with "dirty" stimulus programs requiring carbon-intensive, fossil fuel-intensive paths to recovery. We'll see what they do now. The surge in solid medical waste puts collection workers and landfills at risk worldwide.
Covid-19, a virus born in nature, showed us how fragile the environment is, and gave us a glimpse of what it would look like to have a cleaner, healthier planet. Now is the time to heed the call of UN leaders, scientists and activists asking us to refocus on green jobs and clean energy, building efficiency, and a natural infrastructure. Let's not let the "shock doctrine" dictate a dirty political solution that sacrifices human health and natural landscaping for the economy. Instead, think about what we want, what we know is right, and how to make it happen.
