The Year 2021 Marks The Year Of Nature’s Resurrection
Looking back at the year 2020, humanity will pin it as a turning point where the collective understanding and empathy for nature peaked. Which brought a lasting change in the positive direction for every species on Earth.
For a moment imagine a place where walking into a park feels normal. Children are playing all around. People are walking and there is no need for social distancing. Everyone seems like they are cognizant of the reality we’ve all faced in the past and everyone talks highly of nature. Governments are no longer oblivious of the need to have policies that affect nature positively.
Organizations rightfully support local communities that are aimed at supporting nature and all that constitutes it. Everyone in their own right knows the contribution they are making and the difference their small deeds can have in the overall ecosystem. The educational system is aimed at sustained learning about sustainability.
Nature tech is attracting the majority of investments that are driving real change for the better. And finally, we have hopes of curbing global warming in its path to devastation.
This is a reality we are all heading towards, all because we have come to understand the consequences in their entirety otherwise. Looking back, 2020 will go down in history as a time when every nation around the world stood together in unison against a common enemy. Never has that been the case.
The year we are living in will induce stories that will define centuries going forward in favor of general wellbeing.
All the decisions that will be taken will always have a flavor of the time we all went through. But, most importantly, nature.
The Year That Changed Standards
Taking a critical look at the year 2020 we know that it was devastating because of the pandemic, but it would be massive oversight if we fail to acknowledge the various other tragedies that unfolded notwithstanding the pandemic. According to a page dedicated by Scientific American for the disasters in 2020, the year stands out in every imaginable natural disaster we can think of.
Be it flooding, volcanic eruptions, locust storms, wildfires, hurricanes, or just recorded heat in the summer. Here are some mind-boggling numbers to put the year in perspective.
Storms
This year is the second time in recorded history that the official alphabetical list of hurricane names has been used up. Which meant that forecasters had to move to the supplementary list of Greek letter names. Not only that, 26 of the 29 storms recorded till October 10th were the earliest of their storm number. For example, Delta was the earliest 25th named storm of any season, beating out Tropical Storm Gamma, which formed on November 15, 2005.
September 18 marked the second time on record that three named storms — Wilfred, Alpha, and Beta — all formed on the same day. August 15, 1893, is the only other time this was known to happen before hurricanes received official alphabetical names.
Wildfires
Fires have so far burned more than four million acres across California, about doubling the previous record of nearly two million acres set in 2018. Quality records of fire size in California go back to 1932.
The start of the year was marked by the massive bushfires in Australia. The 2019–20 bushfires in New South Wales (NSW) have been unprecedented in their extent and intensity. As of 28 January 2020, the fires in NSW had burnt 5.3 million hectares (6.7% of the State), including 2.7 million hectares in national parks (37% of the State’s national park estate).
In total, almost 17 million hectares were burnt. Conservative estimates, based on NSW and Victoria only, project losses of over one billion mammals, birds, and reptiles combined. This excludes insects, the loss of which has been reported to be in the ‘hundreds of billions’. With one species, the long-footed Potoroo feared extinct because of the fires.
Rain and Flood
As many as 16 major floods were recorded in the year across the world. This includes regions in Brazil, the US, India, the UK, China, and Africa.
Locust Swarms
Locust swarms In East Africa and parts of India and Asia could be one of the worst pest attacks in over 2 decades (26 years).
Heat
Phoenix set a record for the most days with temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher with 144 days. Not to mention one of the highest recorded temperatures of 54.4C (129.9F) on August 16, 2020, in Death Valley.
Volcanic Eruptions
This year was also one of the busiest when it comes to volcanic eruptions with 61 confirmed eruptions at some point during 2020 from 60 different volcanoes. 17 of which were new eruptions that started during the year. Some of which were notable like Semeru and Ili Lewotolok (Indonesia), Sakurajima (Japan), Piton de la Fournaise (Reunion), Etna (Italy), Telica (Nicaragua), Pelée (Martinique, French West Indies).
Nature Finally Has Our Attention
Even with almost similar natural disasters and degradation that we saw in a few years till now, this year stood out with a massive change in the overall outlook of people for nature. Governments and organizations around the world have understood the delicate balance of the ecosystem and have at the very least acknowledged its importance.
Be it for the climate change activism, or the unsustainable progress that we’ve had, or the degradation and loss of natural ecosystems around the world. This is undoubted because of the disruption that we saw because of the pandemic. With a global lockdown and downturn in almost all economies, we’ve come to question our way forward and understand long-lasting decisions that we need to make.
In many ways, we’ve realized our place in the complex world we live in. Nature finally has received the attention that was required.
We can look at it as a stepping stone towards a future where the inclusion of all species becomes a standard. In no way does this mean that we needed a pandemic to realize this. Honestly, the realization was underway, but the dramatic shift we saw this year accelerated the understanding and shifted all of our attention to what is important and required.
Even with this understanding, there is one question that we all need to answer for ourselves and our cumulative future.
Does this mean that we can be optimistic about the future with nature?
The answer, even though complex, has to be a ‘Yes’. We definitely can look forward with hope and expectation of a better time. It sure will take time, but we now have the incentive and need to take the right steps.
