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David Bouchier: Saving The Planet

The National Archives UK

Earth Day is coming up on Wednesday, and it’s usually hard to decide what to do about that. Back in the 1970s, when Earth Day began, the answer was fairly simple: plant a tree, raise consciousness, promote cleaner air and water. It was a ritual of purification and celebration, a day for us to show how concerned we were about the deterioration of our environment, and our (perhaps naïve) determination to put things right. But none of us wanted to do what really needed to be done—to completely change our way of life.

This year we can sit back and relax. Our lives are being changed for us. The coronavirus has accomplished what half a century of ecological education and propaganda have failed to accomplish. Our lives have been rearranged exactly as they should be, from an ecological point of view. Consider that the greatest global threat is overpopulation. With social distancing discouraging intimacy, the birth rate will certainly fall. As a bonus trillions of gallons of water in unnecessary showers will be saved, along with unimaginable quantities of deodorants and grooming products.

The most striking evidence of our changed lifestyle comes from those maps of global air pollution taken from space. The great dark clouds of smog over the big cities have thinned out, and in some cases almost faded away. People in Beijing and Delhi can breathe again—through a mask of course, but that’s a small price to pay.

This miracle was accomplished in an amazingly short time partly because tourism stopped, and most routine driving stopped. The airlines have gone into hibernation and the highways, at least here on Long Island, are almost empty. The gas tank I filled four weeks ago seems likely to stay full until the summer, or even until Labor Day.

Along with the decrease in pollution comes a decrease in consumption. There’s still online shopping of course, but casual daily shopping has vanished because the stores are closed. In effect, we have rationing. It reminds me of my childhood in England, where rationing began in 1940. It didn’t affect me much at first because I wasn’t eating solid food at the time. But while I was growing up during and after the war strict rationing was in effect, and continued until 1954. It seemed natural to me that my mother never went anywhere without a bunch of ration books containing coupons, and stood in line for the small weekly allowance. Sometimes the ration was a mere illusion, because the shops were sold out.

Everything was rationed, including gasoline and clothes. There were, even then, shortages of toilet paper, and the sales of cheap tabloid newspapers went up spectacularly. Suburban backyards turned into tiny farms where almost everyone kept chickens. A lively barter economy grew up. The rich, as usual, paid no attention to rationing and got what they wanted on the black market.

I’m tempted to say “It didn’t do me any harm,” and I don’t think it did. We were all right, once people stopped dropping bombs on us, and I think we were even happy. My parents managed with great ingenuity, and with the help of the chickens. Now, as we move forward to the past and  navigate this new landscape of restrictions and shortages, we are reliving history without having to watch the History Channel, and, as a bonus, we are helping to save the planet at the same time. It just goes to show—there’s always a bright side.

Copyright: David Bouchier

David began as a print journalist in London and taught at a British university for almost 20 years. He joined WSHU as a weekly commentator in 1992, becoming host of Sunday Matinee in 1996.
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