Corona; a blessing in disguise

The proverbial saying, coined by Jhon Milton, every cloud has a silver lining goes true for the recent situation, owing to the outbreak of novel corona. The fall out of the pandemic has resulted in a lockdown of almost the entire globe. This natural and inevitable isolation has poised to make the people realize that man is a social animal and his connection with his family and habitat is a meaningful one. It should not be taken as for granted, as many of us had. It is the responsibility of humans to keep society intact and our environment clean and green.

The famous social contract, architected by Rousseau, became the basis of society. The latter is a place where individuals interact to accomplish their shared goals. Interaction is essential for the sustenance of society. With the transformation of societies from simple to complex, human interaction increasingly became complicated and a web of social relations with a wide variety formed. In the face of this, organic solidarity got replaced with mechanical bondings. The purposeful social connection gave a blow to the family system, the latter was deemed nucleus of the simple societies. The disruption was due to rapid industrialization in general and technological advancement during the 21^st century in particular. Information technology, on the one hand, has provided relief to mankind and it has disrupted face to face interaction, on the other hand. 

Consequently, a broken society came into being. Every second person has been promoting individualism, forgetting the blessing of organic solidarity. Socially, family and other social relations were on the brink of extinction. People would rely on technology in order to communicate with each other. Electronic gadgets have virtually become sleeping partners of human beings. Globalization and revolutionization of information technology together would cost people to people contact. Consequently, the emotional connection that existed in early societies got disappeared and people started living in aloofness despite having various cliques. In reality, the contact was limited and took a new shape; it looked like a business venture where only customers and vendors could be seen. 

Eventually, the social distancing that became a norm, owing to online socialization, has begotten social separation. Surprisingly, all and sundry were enjoying it. The “Bethaks” and “Chabotras” in villages were deserted and were replaced by Facebook, Twitter, and Whats-App groups. As a result, the reverence that was given by our forefathers to their elders, does not exist in this technologically driven society. It would not be to wrong, if I say that COVID-19 has spread to make people realize the significance of a socially connected society. 

Similarly, the spread of disease proves to be environmental-friendly. 

 With the excessive use of technology, the nature was under a constant threat is no denying the fact. The global temperature before industrialization was less than 1 centigrade. With the advent of industrialization, the global temperature started rising and in the first decade of the 21^st century, it rose to an alarmingly high level. The global pace to take lead in the race of industrialization lead to massive emission of carbon, that in turn, resulted in contamination of the mother earth.

 Consequently, the natural processes such as rain, winds, tenure of seasons and availability of water got disrupted. In addition, melting of glaciers and the extinction of animals were bothering human beings. To avert such crisis and mitigate the impacts many initiatives have been taken by the global leaders. The Paris Climate Conference (COP21) is one of the many initiatives taken. The conference aimed to limit the temperature to 1.5 C. 

However, the COVID-19 became widespread and, is proving more effective in terms of curbing the emission of poisonous gases. The pandemic has significantly reduced the emission of these gases. Ironically, it has cut emissions at a fast rate than 25 years of climate change negotiation. According to the New York times, the emission in China has reduced since January. In the similar way, NASA’s monitoring satellite report noticed a dramatic fall in nitrous oxide, a pollutant that contributes for Green House Gases (GHG). All these reports illustrate that COVID-19 is certainly a blessing and contributing to bring about a change desired by the environmentalists.

 Needless to say, the ameliorating environment is because of the disruption of human activities that contribute to the emission of pollutants. In the face of lockdown, isolation is being practiced for ensuring disinfection, all the mega industries and factories have been closed to combat the scourge of virus. Shopping malls and others alike have remained closed to collaborate with the government policies to mitigate human contact, as human contact is conducive to the proliferation of the virus. These endeavors have brought about a halt to industrial activities, thereby the environment is taking a sigh of relief. Had there been no fears of the contagion, this disruption of carbon emission would have not been slowed down for a while.

Instead of being panic, we must exercise restraint, to keep the pandemic off, and learn the lessons from the positive changes that are contributing to lessening of a greater universal threat: the climate change.