The document discusses the "anthropause" which refers to the global slowdown in human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. It led to a decrease in carbon emissions and allowed nature to recover temporarily. Animals dependent on human activity were negatively impacted by lack of food from closed restaurants. The pause also gave opportunity to appreciate the local environment and reinvent lifestyles to be more sustainable and help the environment long-term.

1. Alan Parkinson
Head of Geography, King’s Ely Junior
CGeog, FRGS

4. What is the
anthropause?
the global-scale, temporary slowdown in human activity, which is likely to
have a profound impact on other species.

5. June 2020: “the great human pause”

6. The term emerged during the first
lockdown
Prof Christian Rutz et al
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-1237-z
There will be unforeseen opportunities to reinvent the way we live our
lives, and to forge a mutually beneficial coexistence with other species. It
would be wonderful if careful research during this period of crisis helped
us to find innovative ways of reining in our increasingly expansive
lifestyles, to rediscover how important a healthy environment is for our
own well-being, and to replace a sense of owning with a sense of
belonging. We hope that people will choose to hear the wake-up call.

7. http://trends.google.com

8. https://languages.oup.com/word-of-
the-year/2020/

9. Google Mobility reports
https://www.google.com/covid19/mobility
/
Free Access

10. Emergence Magazine Podcast
Naturalist Michael McCarthy
“Spring in the time of Coronavirus”
https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-consolation-of-
nature/ Free Access

11. Appreciating the
local
1km from home
Create
your
own
map
with
different
diameters
using:
https://2kmfromhome.com/

12. The temporal experience of the current anthropause is universally
framed as a slowing‐down of everyday life; at odds with the general
accelerationism of globalised extractive economies.
https://rgs-
ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/geoj.12373
https://emergencemagazine.org/op_ed/desire-paths/
The time we’re living through feels borrowed against a future
which is no longer guaranteed. There are glimpses of what the
new world could be like—slower, quieter, more given to care—
but much of this strange time looks like the old world of
inequality and neglect asserting itself with a vengeance. The
transition from old to new seems far from clear. This is why, I
think, I keep looking for new ways to get lost, even briefly, in
places that are most familiar to me.
David Farrier

13. https://www.centreforcities.org/data/high-streets-recovery-
tracker/

14. https://www.centreforcities.org/data/high-streets-recovery-
tracker/

15. Pauses to keep...
“...the resultant fall in global emissions of carbon dioxide: in
the first six months of this year, the total was an 8.8 percent
decrease from the same period in 2019, a drop of more than
1.5 billion tonnes of CO2”
https://lithub.com/covid-19s-anthropause-has-made-nature-
visible-again-at-least-for-now/

16. “Essential”

17. “Human buzz”
Traditionally, seismology has focused on measuring seismic waves,
resulting after earthquakes. Seismic records from natural sources,
however, are contaminated by high-frequency vibrations ("buzz") from
humans on the surface — walking around, driving cars, and catching the
train. subsurface. Heavy industry and construction also generate seismic
waves that are recorded on seismographs.

20. A pause to stop
Send my Friend to
School campaign
800 million children
still out of school...
https://sendmyfriend.org

21. https://rgs-
ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/geoj.12373
Free Access

22. https://rgs-
ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1
111/geoj.12373

23. Animals
“Goats in the streets in Wales”
“Heard the birds more clearly…”
Animals indirectly dependent on human activity fared worse during the anthropause due,
for example, to the absence of roadkill carrion (Garlick, 2020). Those dependent on
human waste for food, such as synurbic rats, pigeons, and foxes, were forced to alter their
rhythms and topographic patterns. Rats in cities around the world, for example, became
more visible during the day and expanded their geographic ranges in search of food as
restaurants closed and stopped leaving discards on the street (Parsons et al., 2020).

24. https://blog.geographydirections.com/2021/02/10/what-can-
geographers-learn-from-the-2020-anthropause
Free Access

25. New PC Geographies
- over a year in the
writing
V11.0
About 200 pages
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WEuZiEy
dbcxmBOs0lfs0_2_vzwIX-OLGljw-SS-
M4UU/edit?usp=sharing

26. Thanks - stay safe
a.parkinson@gmail.com
@GeoBlogs