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Don't despair: use the pandemic as a springboard to environmental action | Carlos M Duarte and others

This is the moment for the equivalent, in conservation terms, of the #MeToo or Black Lives Matter movementsWe are living in a time of environmental anger and despair, and not without cause. Exponential growth of human consumption has led to catastrophic losses of habitats and the decimation and extinction of species. Covid-19, itself a symptom of a world out of ecological balance, has brought not only human tragedy, but also the loss of 2020 as a biodiversity and climate “super year” for planetary assessments and action. The fleeting good environmental news from the shutdown, of wildlife emerging from hiding places and an early precipitous drop in greenhouse gas emissions, has been replaced by a flood of single-use plastics, an outbreak of poaching and deforestation, and attacks on environmental regulations.It is no wonder, then, that grief is so prevalent among people such as ourselves, who work to protect wildlife and habitats. In one popular, albeit simplified, representation of the stages of grieving, initial denial is replaced by anger, bargaining, depression, and ultimately acceptance. Most environmentalists are well past the denial stage, but expressions of anger and depression abound, which nurtures a culture of negativity. This is often expressed as scepticism, criticism or rejection of research reporting positive outcomes for the environment whenever recovery is partial, pressures remain, or data is incomplete (which is almost always the case). In other words, as Voltaire argued against 250 years ago, we make the perfect the enemy of the good.Recovery must be green (and blue, for a healthy ocean) and it must be just, benefiting all Related: Artificial fog and breeding coral: study picks best Great Barrier Reef rescue ideas Carlos M Duarte is Tarek Ahmed Juffali research chair of Red Sea ecology at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. This was written with Callum Roberts, professor of marine conservation at the University of Exeter, and Nancy Knowlton, a marine scientist and author of Citizens of the Sea Continue reading...

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