“The sea is the universal sewer where all kinds of pollution end up conveyed by rain from the atmosphere and the mainland.”
Jacque Cousteau.
By now, I think most of us would be quite accustomed to the new normal brought about by COVID-19 – from the new work or study from home arrangement to the wearing of masks whenever we travel out, and even to social distancing. While the economic and health impacts caused by COVID-19 has been rather devastating in many parts of the world, the environment, in general, has been benefiting from the halting of work due to imposed lockdowns.
For today’s post, I would mainly be doing a review on this video that discussed the improvements to air quality in different parts of the world as an unexpected positive outcome, and here is the video:
Summary
- In places like Wuhan, Italy and New York City, the lockdowns imposed have led to a drastic decrease in the concentration of air pollutants like nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5 in the atmosphere by as much as 20%, and an estimate of 50,000 lives in China has been saved from the effects of air pollution.
- Waterways and canals in Italy that were frequent tourist spots have become clearer ever since travel restrictions and lockdowns imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
- From their experience during the pandemic, many realised that remote meetings with the use of technology can be a replacement for frequent travelling, especially for multinational companies.
- Stricter enforcement should be placed on issues relating to the environment.
- We do not have to wait for another widespread pandemic to readjust and rethink our impacts on the environment.
My Thoughts
- Everyone should play an active role to cut down our emissions and level of pollution as much as possible, especially through international cooperation – just like how doctors, governments and scientists from many countries are coming together to combat COVID-19.
- COVID-19 is a good opportunity and learning space for us to rethink our lifestyles and to learn how to live within our means – there are many things that we used to see them as necessary (such as international air travels for business meetings) can now be substituted with the use of technological platforms like Zoom or Slack. This change can significantly reduce carbon footprint globally.
- Over the past few months, many countries have gradually started to reopen their economies with precautions in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Although there might be sudden peaks in the global emissions due to resumption of production works, I believe that having experienced cleaner air during this lockdown period in countries that used to be heavily polluted, many would choose cleaner over polluted air for health purposes.
- Factories in China have started to manufacture equipment for renewable energy in larger quantities, such as solar panels and windmills to generate electricity. This could mean that China could be the forerunner in cheaper production of green energy equipment that would be a more affordable option as compared to the use of non-renewable sources like coal in the near future.
- No matter how small our individual efforts are, we should try our best to help to reduce our carbon footprint by opting for greener options whenever possible – we do not need to wait until a pandemic to be able to reap the benefits of breathing in clean air.
Alright, that is all from me, stay safe!
Disappearing into thin air,
Yuin Chi
Air Pollution 