Dr. Jane Goodall wants some of the lifestyle changes triggered by the coronavirus pandemic to stay in place.
With most people ordered to stay at home, pollution from automobile traffic and factories has plummeted. A report from NASA revealed that air pollution has been cut by 30% because of the pandemic. Goodall told the Associated Press on Monday that she hopes the reduction in emissions will be a lasting effect.
“Hopefully, we should emerge wiser,” she said. “I think there will be greater awareness of how we brought this pandemic on ourselves and that people will change. I hope there’s a groundswell of enough millions of people who’ve never before breathed clean air in cities, who’ve never been able to look up at night and see a clear sky with twinkling stars.”
She continued, “I hope that they’ll be enough of them to eventually force big business and politicians to … stop carrying on with business as usual. But the fear is that so many leaders now around the world don’t seem to care about future generations, don’t seem to care about the health of the planet.”
Goodall said the cut back in pollution could carry into other parts of life. She argued that “wealthier sections of society” are using more than they need.
“We need a different way of thinking about things. We need to realize that unlimited economic development on a world with finite natural resources and growing human populations can’t work. Already, in some cases, we’re using up natural resources before nature can replenish them. So we cannot expect to survive very far into the future unless we make some change,” she said.
“We have to learn to do with less in the wealthier sections of society. Most of us have far more than we actually need,” she added.
Goodall, who rose to fame because of her work studying chimpanzees, said that the coronavirus has harmed wildlife in some parts of the world. She noted that poaching has risen because a lack of routine tourist travel has left locals with financial stress.
“As tourism stops in different parts of Africa and other countries, poaching goes up partly because people have lost their jobs, and they rely on wildlife for food. The tours give them added protection,” Goodall explained. “It’s a huge worry.”
The financial side effects of the coronavirus have rippled through the global economy. More than 21 million Americans have lost their jobs as businesses remain shuttered to stop the spread of the virus.
