Nature Thrives

In sunny early May in London the streets are pretty empty and there is little traffic noise. It is as though central London has paused. Most Londoners are hiding in their homes too frightened of catching COVID-19 to leave the safety of their surroundings. It has been six weeks now and the lockdown has been applied throughout these islands, even in places which have had no signs of the dreaded disease taking hold.

As a result of the emptiness of London, nature, which abhors a vacuum, has found that in these conditions birds and animals thrive, insects thrive.

Governments, who found it easy to create a lockdown now face a much harder task of deciding when and how to end it. It is going to be very difficult to end the lockdown because governments in many countries have so effectively scared the people. It was easy to get public support for the lockdown – “you are in danger because of this problem” was the message. I expect that most people will not willingly accept the end of the lockdown until the message becomes “you are no longer in danger we have solved the problem”.

In the meantime our native animals, apparently unaffected by the corona-virus, enjoy safety and freedom from intrusive humanity which they have not enjoyed for centuries.