Zakynthos Informer Zakynthos Informer
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In the beginning of lockdown, I, like so many others spent more hours during each day on the internet. My attention glued to graphs of how our country was doing compared to others. Maps of infection hot spots, photos of masked travellers. It was scary and is still, not knowing what the outcome will be. However, more positive pictures started to appear on my Facebook wall. New images appeared, and they were quite unlike the others.
Improvements.
Maps showing improvements in air quality. Photographs of deserted streets and squares bathed in sunlight and, most surprising, videos of wild animals, thriving in newly deserted towns and cities. Across the world it seemed animals were entering places that for a time were only fit for human occupation.
Zakynthos today.
Today, a friend of mine was walking along our port in Zakynthos town and to his surprise witnessed an image he has never seen. A swordfish was swimming within our port, whilst enjoying the peace and quite obviously.
It certainly it is not a sight you see everyday, I for one have never heard or seen a similar picture. In all the years I have lived on the island, stories of wildlife in their swarms could only be a fantasy to most of us now.
Just how much we as humans have affected our environment has only hit hard on us over the last few years, with campaigns and advertisements telling us to protect our home, earth. Perhaps even more so during lockdown, we can actually see the difference man has on his surroundings.
food for thought.
However, one thing I am certain of, whilst the fear of covid-19 spreading across the world, leaving behind it devastation to those who do not appear to prepare properly for combat. The pictures of wildlife basically taking over where humans are now unable to go, gives us a reason to think, to think where we have gone wrong.
Perhaps we need to change our whole life situation, take more care of our planet earth. After all, a virus is part of nature and it is attacking the very thing we hope for, a chance at life and nothing more.
At this very moment we all are certainly feeling the brunt of nature’s attack. Is it time for us to listen and what are we all going to do once lockdown has finished? Are we just going to go back to what we have been doing for so long?
The questions of how we can protect ourselves and our environment will never end. The thought that the world will still go on and that civilization has not ended gets me thinking. Is this a phase we must go through? For now my thoughts are that we’re just on temporary furlough, ordered to our room for a long, hard think about what it has done.
Thank you to Petros Nikolopoulos for the photo and sparking my thoughts.
