How has lockdown been for you? The coronavirus pandemic has affected virtually every aspect of our lives. Christians have rightly spent much time discussing when and how we will be able to meet face-to-face again for worship.
While most of us were stuck at home though, many people had a renewed appreciation of the nature all around us. In the absence of traffic noise, we noticed how loud the birdsong is. Our local parks and green spaces took on a new importance for our daily exercise. At the end of every working day my wife and I would walk through the meadows near our house, enjoying the beauty of creation in a way that perhaps we didn’t before.
It wasn’t just nature lovers who felt this way. A YouGov poll carried out during lockdown showed that 74% of respondents in England agreed that they had noticed more nature in their neighbourhoods since the coronavirus outbreak in the UK than they would normally at this time of year.
I work for a well-known nature conservation charity. Conversations after a Sunday church service would often start: ‘I saw this bird in my garden…’. Now it’s likely to be: ‘How has the lockdown affected wildlife?’
It’s too soon to know for sure, although scientists are investigating the question. On the positive side, there’s been a lack of human disturbance during the breeding season, and wildlife has been seen in all kinds of unexpected places.
And yet a lot of essential nature conservation work had to stop. You may have seen in the media the story of the scientists who had to be rescued from Gough Island (one of the remotest places on the planet) by yacht and the RAF, thus abandoning their mission to save endangered albatross chicks from voracious giant mice (yes, really). Closer to home, there have been many reports of anti-social behaviour during lockdown or as it eased: from littering beaches, vandalism and arson on nature reserves, to the illegal shooting of protected species. Human nature hasn’t changed, and this kind of contempt for God’s world is just one manifestation of the sin that lurks in all our hearts.
Nature is in trouble
The bigger picture is that nature was in trouble well before the pandemic. It’s not just about the Brazilian rainforest or rhinos in Africa, important as they are, it’s at home too. We may be so used to living in a wildlife-depleted landscape that perhaps we don’t notice. In fact, some research suggests that the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Last year, a group of 50 research organisations published the State of Nature report, which shows that one in seven of wildlife species in Britain are at risk of extinction. Take the turtle dove, once a common farmland bird in the south and east of England (well-known to Bible writers: Song of Songs 2:12, ESV). Over the last 50 years the population here has crashed by 93%. There are some success stories, but the general picture is very negative.
When the acute crisis of the pandemic is at an end, as we pray it will be soon, we still need to cure the chronic ecological crisis. As Christians, we have a God-given mandate to be good stewards of creation, just as God gave Adam a mandate to take care of the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:15, NIV). How we do that is a theme which I hope to return to.
