5 Reasons Why The Earth Is Extra Happy Today

Let’s give this a whirl: go outside and take a nice, deep gulp of air. Now, like a fine wine, try to discern what you taste. Maybe a hint of super-freshness? A note of gleeful giddiness? A distant trace of surprise and delight? If you guessed these things, you’re spot on (which is impressive, considering the sport of air tasting originated in this very moment), because it’s Earth’s special day, and today, Earth is feelin’ extra good. 

As it turns out, our current situation is working in mysterious ways. Between being stuck inside, apart from our friends, and worried about loved ones, Coronavirus has felt like a giant stream of bad news in an unsettling new reality (aka Groundhog Day). But there’s been one unexpected silver lining: with life slowing down, we’ve suddenly got a happier, healthier environment—and who can complain about that? So, in honor of Earth’s big day, we’re trading the bad news for the good, smiley kind. Here are five reasons why today, more than any other Earth Day, Earth is ready to celebrate. (Now, does anyone have the Zoom link for the party?)

Extra Super Clean Air

Photo: David McNew/Getty Images

That air you just gulped tastes so fresh and so clean (clean) because it’s exactly that: actually fresh and clean. Since people cannot be in their homes and on the road at the same time (science), there’s been a huge reduction in traffic, meaning way less nitrogen dioxide (more science) in the air. In fact, in the past couple months, we’ve experienced one of the largest drops of nitrogen dioxide ever. (If you don’t believe us, just check out that moment when Los Angeles had the best air quality of all major cities. Yes, this is real life.)

Reduced Greenhouse Gases

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Guess what we do while we hang at home? Burn way less energy. (Exclusion to the rule: making TikTok videos). But in all seriousness, as people have slowed, so have harmful, energy-intensive activities that tend to pump out a lot of pollutants and mess with our planet. For example: we’re wearing the same outfit everyday, so no one’s doing laundry (especially our members). If there’s one equation for you to take through life, it’s this: less laundry = less energy burned = less pollutants = more time to make TikTok videos. See, math is fun.

Less Trash

Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash

Remember that air we talked about before? Give it another inhale, right through the nose. What do you smell? Flowers? Trees? Your neighbor’s bread? (Don’t even ask to borrow their yeast.) Hopefully, you smell a bounty of lovely things—and little trash. With so many restaurants and businesses on pause, we’ve seen way less trash littering our streets—especially in urban environments. (This won’t stop the raccoons though—please see the reason #4).

Surprise Animal Sightings

We know you’re used to seeing pandas in your underwear drawer, but what about the fox in your driveway? With less humans parading around outside, more wild animals are checking out new territory, which is leading to surprise sightings of all sorts of diverse species—right in our own backyards. So take a peek out your window—it’s highly possible the world’s unicorns have been hiding behind your shrubbery since the beginning of time. 

So.Much.Quiet.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Now, take a little listen to the world around you. Is that a bird you hear? The wind through the trees? Your neighbor eight doors down tickling the ivories? Maybe… nothing at all? Most likely, these sounds (or lack thereof) have been happening around you for years, but a cacophony of car horns and text chirps have drowned it all out. As the noise pollution decreases, the quiet’s coming in to cradle us like a little baby. But beware: this puts us at constant fall-asleep risk, so be comfortable always. It’s the smart thing to do in such unpredictable times.