In the last two weeks I noticed that a significant number of blog posts related to the virus and how that affects whatever civic issues topic or passion topic that fits that person and I didn’t think much of it because it just makes sense. Right now that is the most relevant news so why wouldn’t we be talking about it. However, I didn’t really feel that my civic issues topic, which is discussing efforts to fix our environment, really fit into it until I saw a tweet reposted on Instagram. Below I will insert the photo but the pictures and caption show that despite the horrible thing that is happening to our population right now, some good is coming from it. It shows clear water in Venice, Italy, which the post claims to not have happened in a very long time, and it shows photos of swans swimming in the water, even though it also claims that they had been kicked out previously by humans. My first reaction to seeing this was wow! This is incredible. Again, horrible circumstances, but I was thinking about how a relatively short period of time can bring back a damaged ecosystem. After seeing this post, I saw it everywhere but mostly over Instagram and TikTok.
( I’m sorry that image quality is low 🙁 )
So… My original idea for this blog post was to find more information on the water in Venice and how it’s improved but also to look into other environmental impacts of the Coronavirus… With very little digging, I found that this post was a lie. Numerous articles were confirming that the area of Venice in which those photos were being taken, was an area that has a large population of swans and that they never left. I did originally find it suspicious that SO quickly, there were positive impacts on the water. It doesn’t take a long time to make a mess but it is to clean it up. It was too good to be true.
The original post has since been deleted but there are so many screenshots and other posts and videos made using the original tweet as a source so the misinformation continues to go around. While there is nothing really significant that I can do I was thinking about the ways I can prevent this. Really just not trusting information that seems fake because it might just be. I am not saying to reject it completely, just to trust your gut and to research before it tries to convince you of anything. While as optimistic as we try to be, I think sometimes it can blind us from what’s really happening. In the past few years, climate change has been more of a discussion and many companies are listening to that and using that to promote products with labeling that seems natural and eco friendly when it is not. While this definitely isn’t the worst thing that is happening right now, it is sending out a false image of how we can fix this Earth.
https://tbsnews.net/international/fake-animal-news-social-media-amidst-coronavirus-fear-59014
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/03/coronavirus-pandemic-fake-animal-viral-social-media-posts/