When business shutdowns and stay-at-home orders become the primary national COVID-19 around the world, people saw an improvement in air and water quality due to the lack of cars on the road and economic activity. People began to notice wildlife because they were stuck at home. They started posting and tweeting about the return of nature due to the less toxic environment and the diminished human presence outdoors.
Venice hasn’t seen clear canal water in a very long time. Dolphins showing up too. Nature just hit the reset button on us pic.twitter.com/RzqOq8ftCj
— Luca De Santis (@yeSaints) March 17, 2020
This culminated with a series of tweets that went viral with the hashtags like #natureishealing #wearethevirus. Using photos found on the web from years earlier, a tweet claimed to show dolphins and swans returning to Venice, Italy. These were mostly fabricated. The photo didn’t actually show dolphins, rather it was the light of the sun breaking through clouds illuminating the water. And swans are native birds in much of Italy and Europe.
But these viral tweets quickly lead to a trend of similarly hopeful photos and videos of wildlife invading the man-made world, some real, some fabricated, and some using past events unrelated to the COVID-19 lockdown.
And then the mockery. Because everything on the web eventually turns into satire. Or porn.
‘We are the virus’ indeed.
Wow. This is New York today where the city’s streets are empty and nature has returned for the first time since 65,000,000 BC.
The earth is healing, we are the virus. pic.twitter.com/UUQwgrtW7R— St Peter (@stpeteyontweety) April 5, 2020
SOURCES
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nature-is-healing-meme-coronavirus_n_5e95e7fdc5b606109f60fefe