A Quieter Place

     Environmentally, the recent screeching to a halt of much of human activity around the globe has done more than clean up the earth, air, and water (see yesterday's post). The planet has also become a much quieter place. 
      It turns out that we humans are a noisy bunch. Along with all the trash, heat and pollution we produce, we also generate colossal amounts of noise - "anthropogenic noise," it's called - on land from our vehicles and machinery, in the sky from our air traffic, and on the seas from our cruise liners and other commercial vessels.
      Apparently amidst the noise of our enginery  birds can't hear themselves chirp, whales can't hear themselves sing, animals lay low, and seismic studies have shown that our loud rumbling on the surface makes the earth vibrate beneath us.
      But scientists are noting that with the drastic cut in the use of noise-producing machinery, the air all over the world is quieter, the seas calmer, and even the earth has stopped twitching.
           Subsequently the birds are singing more softly - though now we may actually be able to hear them better - because they're no longer straining to be heard above the buzz of traffic and machines,

...and the whales are singing more often because their songs are  no longer being interrupted by the turbulent racket of ocean liners.

      And all over the world animals are taking to the quiet streets.

     And with the ground no longer in a state of constant vibration, seismographs are picking up more of the earth's small quakes and natural movements all around the globe, movements that were lost before in all the constant noise-induced tremors.
      So much calm in the midst of such turmoil.

References:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/apr/06/lockdown-has-cut-britains-vibrations-seismologists-find

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/04/coronavirus-pandemic-earth-pollution-noise/609316/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2020/04/19/is-coronavirus-reducing-noise-pollution/#50e4fd85766f

https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-lockdown-gives-animals-rare-break-from-noise-pollution/a-53106214