The impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on the human experience of nature

The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in extensive lockdowns implemented all around the world and billion of people have been asked to stay at home for several weeks. Although this global confinement has had potentially huge unintended consequences on the environment and on its associated wildlife, thi...

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Veröffentlicht in:The Science of the total environment 2022-01, Vol.803, p.149571-149571, Article 149571
1. Verfasser: Vimal, Ruppert
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in extensive lockdowns implemented all around the world and billion of people have been asked to stay at home for several weeks. Although this global confinement has had potentially huge unintended consequences on the environment and on its associated wildlife, this study shows that it has also impacted the human experience of nature. Based on an online questionnaire, this study aims to assess how the significant changes in people's everyday lives induced by the French lockdown impacted their relationship with other species. Participants did not only observe and interact more with non human species, but also discovered new traits characterizing them, and felt less lonely thanks to them. The impact of the lockdown was stronger on people's relationship with their pets, farm animals, home plants and with birds than with other plants and animals. This study further demonstrates that participants with different profiles have been affected differently. In particular, women and people with better access to nature were clearly more sensitive to changes and have been more positively impacted in their relationships with other species. Acting as a real world experiment, the lockdown reveals to which extent our experience of nature is embedded in social, cultural and political contexts. •During the COVID-19-lockdowns, the relationship between human and wildlife has been placed under a global spotlight.•We showed how such lockdowns had impacted the human experience of nature.•People observed and interacted more with other species, learn new things from them and felt less lonely thanks to them.•The lockdown reveals to which extent our experience of nature is embedded in social, cultural and political contexts.
ISSN:0048-9697
1879-1026
DOI:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149571