It appeared one morning through the kitchen window in a home in India. The man living there was doing what he always did every morning, eating his breakfast at a table under the window. It was then he saw it. Framed by the window, bathed in light was a snow-capped mountain. For 50 years this man lived in this house and every morning would sit at the table under the window and look out to see nothing but a wall of haze choking the light. That morning the haze was gone, leaving a mountain in its place.

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The debate about our impact on this planet is relentless. It feels as though the world is viewed through two prisms — one crystal clear and one clouded in complete denial. In between there is enough human potential that if focused could solve the many ills of the world. And still, a mountain suddenly appearing in a kitchen window during a pandemic lockdown may still not be proof for everyone, but it does show that we can make a difference when it comes to our planet

The mountain story is just one of many stories revealed in the short documentary film The Year Earth Changed, narrated by Richard Attenborough. For me it was clear proof of the impact humans have on the planet and its natural world. In short, take away the people and both know what to do — they both flourish.

It is March 2020 and a pandemic rapidly makes its mark on the world. In cities, towns and villages its impact is sudden and brutal. Still, the world shuts down slowly, because even when the thief is in front of us, we do what we normally do: doubt what we are seeing until it is too late.

Doors are eventually closed, and with the flip of a light switch our personal world shrinks to that of our home. Everything is different, changed, augmented in some quiet and in some very loud ways. Everything and everyone is scared. Inside, we take a deep breath. Outside, the planet takes a long deep breath, too, and is quite surprised at what it finds — nothing and everything.

Days become weeks, then months, and something happens. The planet begins breathing in cleaner air than it had in a very long time. Plants and trees respond, giving back even more, working double shifts to correct the mess that has been generated over hundreds of years. And even an entire mountain range returns from the abyss.

At no time previous to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the exception perhaps of the 1917 flu outbreak, has the world shut down. In 2020 the world closed its doors on itself, hunkered down and every now and then lifted the shade and peeked out the window wincing at the light, wondering when will it all end.

Inside, screens of pixels ate us up. And we in turn were spitting them out every day to family, friends, and coworkers. Outside, the quiet became the “majority” in a world of one, itself — the natural world. It was the cosmic collision, the “Big Bang” experienced this time from the cheap seats, not front and center as the dinosaurs experienced.

While we were hunkered down waiting, the natural world reversed course. The planet began finding its missing pieces, putting itself back together again. As someone said about the film:  “You see how the Earth reclaims the world, and there’s something beautiful in the question of, as man steps away from being the primary tenant, what happens?”

Hazy skies turned blue, cleaner and quieter. The Earth’s atmosphere had the least carbon monoxide in 40 years because there were no planes in the air or cars on the ground; water became cleaner, floundering species reversed course and populations of many animal species increased substantially.

Animals behaved differently, too, dropping their adaptive behaviors to us — because there were no people; whale song changed and traveled greater distances allowing better protection for calves — because there were no cruise ships; bird song of once declining species returned allowing growth in numbers — because traffic noise dropped 70%; and in Florida, sea turtles whose population was in decline finally had a great year since the pregnant females could come onto the empty beaches and lay their eggs safely and at night the hatchlings had a clear and open path back to the sea.

What happened outside during the pandemic lockdown is solid proof that if we leave our hands off Mother Earth the miraculous can happen. But to do so does not require a pandemic to raise its head. Far from condoning permanent shutdowns the film asserts that even with small changes in our behavior we can positively impact the natural world.

This film peeled back the curtain to show without human interference the natural world can thrive and that if we creatively help when and where we can, we all heal. Animals, light, water — fauna and flora of all types — will prosper and in return make our life richer.

We hunkered down — for just a moment — within walls of wood, brick and stone and waited. And in return the Earth came back to its former self. A planet on the brink if given a chance will reward us with sights and sounds we have been missing and not realizing — just like that man experienced in India.

© 2023 RJ Heller

First published February 24, 2023 The Quoddy Tides