2020 has become the lost year—the time when we are all being held captive to Covid19. We have the lost year for housing, hi-tech, employment, movies, sports, education, and pretty much everything. An article by Neil Mackay  got me thinking about this along with my 17-year-old son. Mr. Mackey talks about the loss in many areas of our day to day life and potential long-term impacts.

My son is graduating high school this spring and starting college in the fall. Our senior year is supposed to be a period of learning a lot for sure but also spending time with friends and one last summer break before years of college or a lifetime of work. A signature point in our lives to take stock and decide what is essential.

At the time of writing this piece, the total confirmed Covid19 cases worldwide stands at 2,505,485 with 172,391 deaths and 659,633 recovered per World Meters. These numbers, which keep growing, have impacted us all in so many ways.

It has also impacted our environment. One such positive impact is a projected 5% drop in carbon emissions for 2020. We had a 1.4% drop during the Great Recession, but that quickly rebounded the very next year. Unfortunately, it would take many years of 5% emissions cut to make a difference in climate change projections.

Another impact that has proven to cause significant problems for our environment is budget cuts due to the financial crisis. Funding to preserve land, protect wildlife, or mitigate past harmful acts is always the first to be cut.

It is understandable when we have so many already standing in food lines and over 20 million people out of work. The funding impacts however, do not rebound as quickly as the harmful carbon emissions. We are experiencing a lost year for our environment and perhaps much longer.

In my personal experience, it can take several years to secure enough funding for a positive environmental project such as preserving habitat or a river revetment project that restores an eroding river shoreline. To learn more about my experience with these projects, go to wimmerswilderness.org.

In a flash of bad economic news, environmental funding becomes the sacrificial lamb. The harm is not just in the year, or in the case of Covid19 perhaps several years, of a financial downturn but can become generational.

When good stewardship of the land and wildlife is no longer a budget priority, it starts to slide further down the ladder of importance. As time goes by, funds dry up. Not to be political, but we also have a federal administration that is not only cutting funding to support sound environmental practices but stripping away wildlife protections, clean air, and water protections.

These policy shifts, which are barely even noticed, go beyond an immediate need to shift spending to lessen the impacts of Covid19.

The loss of human life and dignity will always overshadow the loss of our furry friends as perhaps it should. The loss of our humanity, which centers on how we care for our environment and our furry friends, however, should never be sacrificed.

A lost year of environmental protection and work is now a reality. We must make sure it does not become a part of a new “normal” otherwise, we have lost ourselves.