Of course it’s complicated. But in some cases, nature really missed humans, researchers found.
Brian Owens is a freelance science writer and editor based in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. This article first appeared in Hakai Magazine. SHARES Ocean noise dropped during the pandemic, including in BC’s Nanaimo Harbour where it fell by 86 per cent. But lockdowns weren’t all good for the natural world.
Photo via Shutterstock.
As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold last spring and people around the world went into lockdown, a certain type of news story started to spring up the idea that, in the absence of people, nature was returning to a healthier, more pristine state. There were viral reports of dolphins in the canals of Venice, Italy, and pumas in the streets in Santiago, Chile.
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As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold last spring and people around the world went into lockdown, a certain type of news story started to spring up the idea that, in the absence of people, nature was returning to a healthier, more pristine state. There were viral reports of dolphins in the canals of Venice, Italy, and pumas in the streets in Santiago, Chile. But new research shows that the true effect of suddenly removing people from so many environments has turned out to be much more complex.
“It was surprising how variable the responses were,” says Amanda Bates, an ecologist at Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador who led an international team of more than 350 researchers in an effort to study how lockdowns have affected the natural world. “It’s impossible to say,” says Bates, whether the consequence of people’s sudden disappearance “was positive or negative.”
When Tanaya Chatterjee found out that her father had tested positive for Covid, the first thing she wanted to do was jump on a plane then she found out her mom and sister had it too. As a psychologist working with Toronto’s South Asian community, she has spent the last several weeks helping her clients process their fear, grief and guilt following India’s tragic second wave. On a personal level, she’s just trying to get through the day without checking her phone five times a minute. Here, she talks managing fear from 7,000 miles away and why Netflix, barbecue chicken and diving into work have helped her cope.
OTTAWA A new campaign is asking you to donate your gently used cellphones to women’s shelters in the city of Kingston. Project Connect is run by students with Queen’s University s Faculty of Health Sciences. People can donate their used cellphones, tablets and laptops, and they will be given out to those in need, including those at women’s shelters. Student organizer Naomi Wedel says the technology can make a difference in someone’s day-to-day life. It’s going to be potentially life changing, Wedel tells CTV News Ottawa. Being able to have access to ways of expanding their lives, starting over, having that fresh start.
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B.C. is lagging behind in administering all the COVID-19 vaccines in its supply, with only 73 per cent of doses sent by the federal government actually making it into people’s arms. Provincial health officials have consistently said the pandemic is now a race between vaccine delivery and rapidly rising variants of concern, a race the variants seem to be winning.
As of Thursday, B.C. administered 946,096 doses out of its total 1,289,060-dose supply, putting it ahead of most provinces and territories in Canada. According to data compiled through the COVID-19 vaccination tracker using official government sources, B.C. is only behind Saskatchewan, which has administered 82.2 per cent of its doses, and Northwest Territories, which is sitting at 74.8 per cent. The largest gap between vaccines administered and vaccines received is in Manitoba at 54.6 per cent.