It may seem like COVID-19 has led to a resurgence of nature, but the full picture is not so rosy.
It has been all over the media for weeks now: Nature has “hit the reset button”. “Animals are taking over,” read countless upbeat posts on Twitter.
With billions of humans forced to stay home across the world, as the COVID-19 outbreak ravages lives and livelihoods, wildlife appears to be making a comeback. Every day sees fresh reports of nature taking this unprecedented time, when a third of the global population is on lockdown, to reclaim spaces long ago colonized by humans. In Thailand, tourist-free beaches have lured record numbers of rare turtles to breed; in South Africa, penguins are waddling through the abandoned streets; and in Italy, wolves, deer and bears have been spotted in big towns and cities.
Read the full article here.