Homo Sapiens built enormous homes and blew up mountains for minerals to heat them with. They covered their food in plastic, and the plastic ended up in landfills, waterways, and inside animals. The well-to-do relied on the disadvantaged to trim their toenails and cook their food. The planet was heating up, the ice caps were melting, and hundreds of thousands of animals were sailing over the extinction cliff with humans close behind them.
Yes, humans were a runaway train of obscene wastefulness in the pre-Covid days and it took a pandemic to wake them up. But that was eons ago.
After the virus killed millions and dismantled the global economy, people sobered up and let go of non-essential nonsense. They learned to garden, cook, and cut their nails, they began harnessing solar and wind for energy, built smaller homes, and stopped smothering everything in single-use plastic packaging. Meanwhile, the trees grew, unhindered, and, over time they turned the air breathable again.
The best part of this story? Covid-19 was a virus that attacked human lungs.