REBUILDING AFTER COVID-19, Visible to the naked eyes as well, the stargazers this week have been thrilled by the appearance of a rare comet blazing the night sky and leaving behind a heavenly trail. A telescope of NASA spotted the rare comet NEOWISE arriving in our skies on its solitary orbit around the sun that spans over 6800 years. The comet will be visible until about mid-August and has arrived from distant parts of our solar system.
As per our ancient culture and beliefs, comets caused amazement and sometimes fear as they were thought to foretell dangerous and terrible incidents. Ancient cultures have superstitions related to comets as well and several of them mention certain rituals to prevent oneself from being affected by the bad effects. However, scientifically, comets are nothing but cosmic snowballs that is, frozen residue from the solar system formation that circle endlessly in space and occasionally hove into our view amazing us.
But, the fears related to these heavenly projectiles aren’t just religious or traditional. They are quite practical when these comets have the risk of smashing into the earth. As guessed by most, the dinosaurs probably faced extinction due to an asteroid crashing on earth about 66 million years ago. This asteroid might have caused an “impact winter” which killed most of them. Also, it has been postulated recently that a cometary hit from space some 13,000 years ago saw of the mammoth, the mastodon and such other giant animals. It is also guessed to have ended the early North American civilization of Clovis which is famous for their distinctive spear-points.
REBUILDING AFTER COVID-19, For many years, scientists have tried to analyze the causes of the past climate changes to comprehend the present conditions. As it’s not unknown that the world we live in is threatened by the ever-increasing CO2 levels, scientists have concluded that the last time the CO2 level was this high was when modern human beings didn’t exist. No celestial collision is responsible for this change- it’s the modern humans.
What can be the Solutions?
The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has had several positive impacts on the environment thus fueling the “build back better” movement. This has somewhat reflected in the actions of our respected leaders. Two of the initiatives are-
- Ocean Investment- The 14 world leaders have collaborated in the “High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy”. Here they focused on conserving and restoring mangrove plants, decarbonising the shipping industry, developing and giving impetus to sustainable fishing and increasing offshore wind production. The lead author of the report, Manawita Konar, stated that oceans which are forever victimized of climate change have the “ability to address the challenges and bring about prosperity to the economy”.
- Public Will- According to several surveys, the general public is aware and concerned about the degeneration of the environment. About 80% of Amazon customers wanted Amazon to go plastic-free. Looks like people are ready to actively participate in an effort to save the environment.
