Earth Day in the Time of Pandemic
Painting by Nick Esquivias
Today, April 22nd we celebrate earth day. Earth Day is an annual event celebrated worldwide to honor our common planet we call earth and to highlight our role as stewards of mother nature.
After more than a month of lockdown due to the pandemic, earth and mother nature is thriving once again. The absence of human incursion and industrial activity have provided a wondrous time for mother nature to heal and to rest. Air is clean more than ever. Dolphins have swam back into the canals of Venice. Wildlife is venturing out into the streets again. Animals and birds must surely be asking themselves what’s changed, where have we gone?
The lockdown also gave the opportunity for us humans to take a stock of our relationship with mother nature in the context of the pandemic. Would have our continuous incursion into the environment contributed to the genesis of the virus? A number of researchers today think that it is actually humanity’s destruction of biodiversity that creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases such as Covid-19 to arise. Disease ecologist Thomas Gillespie, an associate professor in Emory University’s department of environmental sciences says,
“Major landscape changes are causing animals to lose habitats, which means species become crowded together and also come into greater contact with humans. Species that survive change are now moving and mixing with different animals and with humans.”[1]
The covid-19 pandemic have, more than ever, highlighted the increasingly visible connections between the wellbeing of humans, other living things and entire ecosystems. One of the biggest challenges of the pandemic is how to re-think our attitudes to and reshape our relations with Nature–God’s Creation. The pandemic calls for radical, not just cosmetic, changes to our values and lifestyle with regards to the earth and mother nature.
Celebrating Earth Day, Pope Francis delivered a catechesis which was a reflection on the human and Christian responsibility to care for the earth, humanity’s common home. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the pope’s encyclical, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.”
In his catechesis, the pope said Earth Day was “an occasion for renewing our commitment to love and care for our common home and for the weaker members of our human family.”
“As the tragic coronavirus pandemic has taught us, we can overcome global challenges only by showing solidarity with one another and embracing the most vulnerable in our midst.”
Pope Francis
[1] ‘Thomas Gillespie, Tip of the iceberg’: is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19?” The Gurdian, accessed 22/04/2020 at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/18/tip-of-the-iceberg-is-our-destruction-of-nature-responsible-for-covid-19-aoe
I am passionate about the intersection between new media and technology. I continue to research and apply new media in theology and vice-versa. I am also a fan of Our Mother of Perpetual Help and her continuing relevance in today's digital world.
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