Our footprint has a great impact in Colombia’s economy, status, politics, especially in this COVID19 situation because our behaviors have been changed, our individual, community and national footprint has been affected in all sorts of ways.

Lockdown has been the main strategy to protect the people, here in Colombia this confinement began mid march so till this day we’ve been in our houses for almost 8 months, this created a new scenario in which every member of our families increased the amount of time using electronic devices for entertainment, work and study, this created a lot pressure in resources because Colombia’s main source for electricity is water power (Hydroelectrics), followed by coal burning. Actually, some of Colombia’s biggest dams are almost dry because of this increasing use in electricity nationwide. If this wasn't enough pressure on these resources, as the economy was extremely affected, the national government created 3 TAX-off dates for some products for the economical reactivation, which caused many colombians to buy technology products, increasing even more the impact of energy use.

On the other hand, water was also affected because it is a very important resource for cleaning, as it is advisable to wash hands every 4 hours and some families bathe every time they return to their houses when doing some outdoor activities. Other biosecurity measures include the constant use and disposal of facemasks, gloves, protective suits which are needed on a daily basis and most of them are not biodegradable and have the condition to be a health risk, so their disposal is not very eco-friendly. Plastic and other kinds of synthetic materials use raised due to the amount of deliveries been made, people that are working of studying doest have enough time to cook for themselves or simply for the ease of just receiving the food already made, so every delivery needs a lot plastic of synthetic material to be safe for consumption.

The new ideas that raised due to this COVID19 situation is the undeniable fact that human beings are big responsibles for a lot of damage in this planet, this can be observed when only in the few months that the lockdown occured, there has been a lot of cases of native animals reappearing in places never seen before, the levels of CO2 and other GHG’s also decreased in some places, also there has been an “cleaness” in the air and water bodies. This sanitary situation can be a positive event for nature to restore a bit while some activities ceased or are slowed down, but also is a new source of problems never seen before, because with the constant use and disposal of facemasks an other bioprotective tools, they are now becoming a very important target of ocean contamination and landfills.

This is an opportunity to understand our place in the world, our responsibility with our planet and to find the optimal solutions for our environmental problems that help in every way, not as our current “solutions” which help in a way but create further impacts in some other ways. There are a lot of good ideas that can be implemented and can be very useful for precise problems, and should be the center of attention.

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