The inhabitants of planet Earth have been living in extraordinary circumstances for more than a year - the corona virus affected all aspects of the living world, and what consequences did it leave on the planet?
Last year, there were reports that a slower lifestyle could curb climate change to a certain extent, but it turned out that these assumptions are not very realistic.
"Reduced traffic did have an effect on mitigating climate change, but not significantly and not enough," Duška Dimović from Serbian told the BBC in Serbian. World organizations for naturein Serbia (WWF Adria).
"The industrial period and the intensive use of fossil fuels have lasted for more than a century, and in less than a year we have only partially reduced the emissions of gases that cause the greenhouse effect," she states.
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Dimović claims that the Kovid-19 epidemic has given people the opportunity to realize how important natural habitats and green areas are for mental and physical well-being.
2020 Life on Planet Report, which he published WWF, points out that the rapid destruction of nature, as a result of human activities, has catastrophic effects not only on the populations of wild species, but also on human health and all other aspects of life.
We live in a world that is getting warmer, and many plant and animal species will not share the planet with us for much longer, because they are on the verge of extinction or have already disappeared.
We are surrounded by plastic, garbage - rivers, seas and oceans are polluted, and the pandemic has brought them a new danger.
Masks, gloves and other medical waste found are on their surface and bottom.
Forest fires continue to rage across the planet and destroy the most ancient forests - such as the Amazon rainforest.
And that's where the story just begins.
Today is March 27th and it's been a little over a month and a half since rover Perseverance landed on Mars to look for traces of life.
While the rover is recording the neighboring planet, on this last Saturday of the month in which spring has arrived, it is time for people to pay a little more attention to the Earth and to leave less traces on its surface.
Today, Earth Hour is celebrated around the world and, traditionally, the lights are turned off for an hour between half past nine and half past ten in the evening.
"Move for the Planet" is the slogan of this year's campaign.
In addition to the call to turn off decorative lighting in public buildings and turn off lights in apartments for 60 minutes, this year's Planet Hour, like in 2020, will also be held online.
Did we move for the planet during 2020?
In 2020, the world stopped, and it can be said that on the other hand, people moved for and towards nature.
"The Covid-19 epidemic gave us the opportunity to understand how important natural habitats and green areas are for our mental and physical well-being," says Duška Dimović from the World Nature Organization.
The world stopped in an instant.
There are fewer airplane flights, certain economic activities are reduced, and therefore pollution.
"That connection is indisputable. We saw for a moment that the ecosystems quickly begin to recover, that the Earth's self-healing processes are immediately activated.
This is encouraging, but it is temporary and insufficient," says Dimović.
Matthew White, an environmental psychologist from the UK University of Exeter, conducted a study on a large sample pre-Covid-19 that found a positive relationship between exposure to the natural world and environmentally conscious behavior such as planting trees.
One mechanism for encouraging people to take more green actions could be the sense of awe that comes from spending time in nature, a previous study found.
Google Trends shows that during the lockdown, the number of global online searches for the terms "bird sounds", "identify trees" and "plant growing" doubled compared to the same period a year ago.
The research suggests that this greater participation in nature could also change attitudes towards the environment.
Nevertheless, Dimović claims that people still cut down more forests than they plant, consume drinking water faster than supplies can be renewed, and emit more carbon dioxide than nature can store.
"The ecosystem's ability to mitigate our negative impact is diminishing and we are already feeling the drastic economic and social consequences.
"We are depleting ecosystems through overexploitation in the sectors of industry, agriculture, forestry, water resources management, infrastructure, mining and energy, hunting, fishing and tourism," she says.
Stoppage of economic activities, introduction of quarantine across the planet, reduced traffic. The drop in carbon dioxide emissions was greater than in all previous economic downturns.
It may sound like great news, but things are not quite that simple. Despite the reduction in activity, the level of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere during the quarantine in many countries was the highest in history.
In order for the pandemic that has hit us to have a beneficial effect on the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, drastic and long-term changes are needed, experts agree.
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Industries are slowly opening up, and all this has a negative impact again and emissions of harmful gases start to rise again.
Maybe last year there were photos from the world's metropolises that finally showed no pollution, but they were all short-term scenes.
That not much has changed in Serbia and the Balkans is evidenced by reports that Belgrade, Sarajevo, Skopje and other cities throughout the country are among the most polluted in the world.
Things could change in a few years, because of the announcement that they will ten blocks will be closed by the end of 2023 in coal-fired thermal power plants in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia due to the harmonization of the electricity production sector with the rules of the EU Directive on large combustion plants.
At the same time, Europe announces the closure of half of its coal-fired power plants by 2030.
"Just five years since the historic Paris climate agreement, half of Europe's 324 coal-fired power plants have either already closed or committed to stop operating by 2030," the network of organizations said in a statement. Europe Beyond Coal.
This significant milestone was reached on Monday, when the British energy company EDF announced the closure of the West Burton thermal power plant by 2022.
All European coal-fired power plants must be closed before 2030 to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
And while last year's reduction in harmful gas emissions had little effect on reducing pollution, the spread of the coronavirus among people could save many wild species.
The coronavirus is believed to have first passed from animals to humans at a market selling wild animals used for food in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Since the emergence of the virus, sales have been banned in some markets.
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"While questions remain about the exact origin of the Kovid-19 virus, the World Health Organization has confirmed that it is a zoonosis, a disease that people get from animals," says Duška Dimović.
At least 61 percent of all human pathogens originate from animals, according to WHO data.
"The position of the World Organization for Nature is that legal and illegal trade in live wild animals is behind the spread of this new pathology.
"Such a practice is a means of the emergence of existing and new zoonoses, and increases the risk of pandemics that can have enormous health, social and economic consequences for everyone - as we have had the opportunity to see for a year now," says the interlocutor.
Climate change has (not) slowed down
Although the world has slowed down for more than a year, climate change has not.
The year 2020 is one of the warmest since measurements have been recorded.
The famous British naturalist David Attenborough in the year behind us he opened an account on Instagram in order to send important messages about the environment and the fight against climate change through it.
"I decided to do this... Because, as we all know, the world is in trouble," he said in the first video message on the platform in September 2020.
"Fires are raging on continents. Glaciers are melting, coral reefs are dying. The list is getting longer," he continued.
Although he was prompt in posting content at first, Attenborough has not released anything since late October.
Perhaps the famous naturalist, who is in his tenth decade of life, has seen that social networks are not the place where actions really start.
Nevertheless, an action on the social network Zum will take place tonight, but by turning off the lights, it should shed light on a huge global problem.
"WWF, as a global organization dealing with nature protection, sees climate change as one of the biggest problems for our planet.
"They cannot be stopped unplanned, not even in just one year. Our message is - we must urgently and long-term change our behavior, the way we treat the planet," Duška Dimović told the BBC.
The World Organization for Nature states that it is necessary for people to preserve natural capital and turn to sustainable production and wiser consumption.
It is important that they focus on fair and sustainable agriculture and food production, fair compensation for work, waste reduction, climate change mitigation, equal access to natural resources and an integrated approach to restoring and preserving nature.
"The facts are that we only have one planet, that natural resources are limited, and that we are consuming them faster than they can be naturally renewed.
"Despite this, there seems to be a prevailing belief that natural resources are inexhaustible and that nothing special will happen if we continue to behave as we have done so far," says Dimović.
What have we done for the planet in the past 365 days?
From the fires in the Amazon and Australia, the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas, the devastation of forests, to the oceans where masks are now swimming along with other waste, air that has a color and smell, and the image of the pollution of the Drina that can be seen from space.
These are just some of the scenes we witnessed during the previous 365 days.
The fires have forever wiped out good parts of the rainforest, dozens of plant and animal species have disappeared from the face of the planet Earth forever, and many have come to the brink of extinction.
The corona virus brought another big environmental problem and question - how to properly dispose of used masks and gloves and other protective equipment.
Many were bewildered when a video from the Mediterranean surfaced in May of last year, published by a French organization for the protection of nature, showing medical gloves and masks on the seabed.
Environmentalists then said that they were appalled by the new pollution caused by the corona virus epidemic.
While many countries are phasing out single-use plastics, medical waste is exacerbating existing plastic pollution.
At the time that video appeared, it seemed that the end of the pandemic was in sight.
Now, ten months later, the pandemic is still in full swing, and masks have become probably the best-selling product in the world.
The question is where they end up after single use.
And even more important - will it end up in the stomach of some sea animal.
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When it comes to Serbia, in addition to the pandemic, in 2021 public concern was also caused by environmental problems.
Already in the first days of the year, news about the rivers arrived Limu i Drina which were covered with waste, more than a hundred illegal landfills were counted in Niš, and the air in Serbia was among the most polluted in the world.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection joined the cleaning action, so the waste from the Potpeć Lake near Priboj was removed, and a similar action began on the Drina near Višegrad.
The waste that floated there through the tributaries of the Drina from Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina at the beginning of March could also be seen from space, and as it was said to the BBC at the time, it should be completely removed in a few months.
Non-governmental organizations, associations and individuals are increasingly expressing their displeasure about environmental problems.
At the beginning of January, a large protest was held in Belgrade demanding the involvement of all competent authorities in solving the problem of air pollution.
"A good and close example is the fight against small hydroelectric power plants on Stara planina, against the logging of Košutnjak, and the fight of the inhabitants of our country for clean air.
"It seems that we too are beginning to understand more and more how vulnerable we are and how connected we are to nature," says Dimović.
Serbia got a new one a few days ago Law on Climate Change.
In the discussion in the Assembly, it was said that the implementation of this law will establish a system for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ensure adaptation to changed climate conditions.
Minister of Environmental Protection Irena Vujović stated is that this law confirms that the issues of environmental protection and climate change are finally high on the list of priorities of the Government of Serbia.
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Duška Dimović concludes that the key factor in the fight against environmental problems is the responsibility of decision makers.
"We need courage and determination to stop destroying nature, solidarity, empathy, respect and hope that change is possible.
"First of all, change the attitude that your contribution is small, because together our collective action is powerful," Dimović points out.
What is the Clock for our planet?
Millions of people around the world turn off their lights for one hour every March to show their unwavering commitment to protecting nature and the need to work together to reduce man's impact on planet Earth and tackle climate change., it was stated on the website of the World Organization for Nature.
The action was first launched in Sydney in 2007 as citizen initiative to raise awareness about climate change, but also a call for urgent action.
Today it is considered the largest voluntary civil action for the protection of nature.
Zemlje Balkans they have been in this action since 2009, and more than 150 cities, numerous companies and individuals participate annually.
And this year in Belgrade it will be blacked out for 60 minutese public city locations, such as the building of the House of the National Assembly, Presidency, Palate Serbsja, buildinge Vlade, of the Old Court, Kalemegdanske fortresse, the winnera, Monumenta to Prince Mihail, Kule You're not afraida, Templea sof St. Sava, ChurchitSaint Marka.
Neither the bridges nor the Aval Tower will light up.
Čačak, Novi Pazar, Sremski Karlovci, Beočin, Ivanjica, Bački Petrovac, Opovo, Bečej, Trstenik, Pirot, Zrenjanin will join the campaign by turning off decorative and public lighting.
PLast year's campaign Hour for our planet was more massive thano earlier - 190 countries and territories participated, and more than 4,7 billion impressions were recorded on global social networks, it was announced from the Worldeorganizations for nature.
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