You might be forgiven for thinking that the global lockdown measures keeping us all at home can only have been good for the environment ... But in the world’s tropical forest regions, it’s another story. Environmental agencies have reported an uptick in deforestation during lockdowns, as well as increases in poaching, animal trafficking[,] and illegal mining worldwide. The trends are alarming, environmental experts say, and could be hard to reverse.
“This narrative of nature having been given a break during Covid, it’s not entirely accurate. It’s accurate in cities and peri-urban areas,” says Sebastian Troeng, executive vice-president of Conservation International. “But unfortunately in the rural areas, the situation is almost the inverse.”
So the air and water are getting cleaner, but enviro-pillaging is getting worse.
Also from the above-quoted blog:
In my old African stamping-grounds [sic], this is particularly evident. When so many people are surviving on the ragged edge of starvation, any added burden like the coronavirus pandemic will drive those barely "making it", now deprived of what little opportunity they had, to turn to anything available—even if that means destroying nature around them. It's that, or die, as far as they're concerned.
Upshot: people still suck, but sometimes the suckage is not by choice.
Damn it, the plan was for them to starve and solve the overpopulation issue. What now, Bill Gates?
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