Coronavirus has devastated many people, companies, and even entire countries. For some there's no end in sight. Luckily, there is one good effect.
The orange and red spots symbolize the higher concentrations of nitrogen dioxide gas.
The environment, as you know, hasn't been doing so hot. Well actually, it's been too hot. The point is with lack of travel and industrial operations, your staying put is doing a lot of good.
“The cloud of nitrogen dioxide that was parked over China in January seemed to evaporate in February,” said Denise Chow.
Corona and the Environment
All around the world, people are being told to stay inside. Due to this, the environment seems to be pretty happy. Christopher Jones, the lead developer of CoolClimate Network said, "If we can think about how to prepare for climate change like a pandemic, maybe there will be a positive outcome to all of this."
Restrictions in China and Italy led to a big drop in nitrogen dioxide. In just four weeks, China's nitrogen was down by 25%. There were also significant drops in fine particulate matter (small, airborne particles that can be inhaled into the lungs) around the U.S. San Francisco's concentration was down by 40%, cities in Washington by 32%, and New York by 28%.
Positive environmental effects have also come from the reduction of industrial operations and coal consumption. Industrial operations have fallen by 15% to 40% in some regions and coal consumption in power plants has dropped by 36%.
Radley Horton, a climate scientist from Columbia University, brings up a great point. He said that after this is over and people regain their freedom, they have two choices: They can either go and do all of the things that they were restricted from, or they could realize that video conferencing might be a better choice than driving into the office five days a week, that they don't have to fly to conferences every month, etc.
I think the main take away from all of this is that we can make a huge impact by working together. For those who think saving the environment is impossible, now you know how fast things improve when big changes are made. I will leave you with one more piece of good news. Due to the lack of boat traffic, Italy's famous canals are now clear and scattered with fish.
Stay happy and stay strong. As Dory says, "Just keep swimming." Have a wonderful day and don't forget to subscribe.
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