As the world struggles to get a grip on the coronavirus pandemic, one thing may benefit from the social isolation: the environment.
As flights are grounded, fewer people are hitting the road and the economy backslides, pollution levels are dropping all over the world, and nature is reclaiming its spaces.
In Venice, following the reduction of water traffic from gondolas and cruise ships, the waters are becoming crystal clear; dolphins, fish and swans are returning to rejoice in the canals.
In Wuhan, where COVID-19 is thought to have emerged back in December, the sky, usually murky, has turned blue. The change has been attributed to travel bans, interruption of factory work and an overall standstill for life as we know it.
People have taken to Twitter to post images of the altering phenomena, describing just how rare the events are.
One Italian Twitter user said: “Here’s an unexpected side effect of the pandemic – the water flowing through the canals of Venice is clear for the first time in forever. The fish are visible, the swans returned.”
A citizen of Wuhan tweeted on March 15: “I’m in the central city of China-Wuhan, today the weather is very good, the blue sky, birds and trees have grown green! Under the control of the virus outbreak, our city will usher in a beautiful spring!”
But the fall in CO2 emissions in 2020 is likely to be a temporary blip that could well be followed by a rebound in emissions growth as economic activity regains its strength. Seeing the positive alterations in the environment amid a deadly pandemic is something the world can remember once the new coronavirus fades away, even more so as the overall dilemma of climate change renders persons significantly more vulnerable to any illness, including COVID-19.
“Patients with chronic lung and heart conditions caused or worsened by long-term exposure to air pollution are less able to fight off lung infections and are more likely to die. This is likely also the case for COVID-19,” said Sara De Matteis, of Cagliari University, Italy, and a member of the environmental health committee of the European Respiratory Society. “By lowering air pollution levels, we can help the most vulnerable in their fight against this and any possible future pandemics.”
A researcher at Stanford University, Marshall Burke, calculated the improvements in air quality recorded in China may have saved the lives of 4,000 children under 5 years old and 73,000 adults over 70.
“It seems clearly improper to conclude that pandemics are good for our health… But the calculation is perhaps a useful reminder of the often-hidden health consequences of the status quo”, Burke wrote in his blog post.
Governments could seize this moment to step up their climate ambitions and enact new climate policies. Removing subsidies for fossil fuels, raising taxes on carbon dioxide emissions, or initiating sustainable stimulus packages focused on clean energy technologies, can be some of those.
By Elene Dzebisashvili
