The coronavirus has wreaked untold damage on humankind. Thousands of people around the world have died and tens of thousands more have required intensive hospital care. And we may only be at the end of the beginning, as opposed to the beginning of the end.
As humanity has come to terms with the pandemic, it's forced us to change much of our behaviour. Not all of this is bad news because not all human behaviour is virtuous.
Just take a look, for instance, at pollution rates before and after Covid-19.
BEFORE & AFTER: NASA and ESA pollution monitoring satellites have detected significant decreases in nitrogen dioxide over China. One reason behind the dramatic drop right here... https://t.co/LqvURfURqY pic.twitter.com/uDGFuV1MTR
— Marc Weinberg (@MarcWeinbergWX) March 4, 2020
The dramatic reduction of air travel in Europe and American will inevitably be have an incredibly positive effect on carbon emissions.
Have you seen @ESA_EO's findings about NO2 emissions in northern #Italy 🇮🇹?
Data from #Copernicus #Sentinel5P 🛰🇪🇺 revealed a drop in emissions which seems to coincide with the lockdown implemented to fight #COVID19.
⬇The animation shows the fluctuation of NO2 across #Europe. pic.twitter.com/n1O5nYuB2l— Copernicus EU (@CopernicusEU) March 16, 2020
And now comes news that's almost as good as the restoration of Planet Earth's blue skies: the pandemic may mean there'll be no Love Island this summer.
Casting and producing a programme on the scale of Love Island is hard enough when the western world isn't under lockdown. Even worse, no one knows how long this crisis will go on for. So it wasn't surprising to read into today's Sun that producers were considering canning the season.
"All the signs are pointing towards the show not airing,” a source said.
"A huge amount of work goes into Love Island and to pull everything together in a very short space of time would be near impossible.
“Casting aside, they need to think about all the paperwork necessary, the show’s insurance and all the tests that cast members must undergo.
“The team are also very conscious that if overseas travel restrictions are not lifted in time, filming in Mallorca as normal will be ruled out of the question
And this would be a small mercy. Love Island was deeply problematic before the tragic death of former presenter Caroline Flack. While many hate-watch or force themselves to watch it with partners, the simple act of Love Island disappearing from our TV schedules and social media feeds this summer would restore our collective humanity by a not-insignificant quotient, in the range of .05%.
