How Coronavirus is Affecting the Earth
Coronavirus. A slap to reality. Schools closed, families separated, loved ones dead or
dying, businesses failed,
medical resources strained, the whole world flipped on its head in a matter of days, and we are not even at the
peak of the virus. If you told me two weeks ago that this virus would progress to the level of a pandemic this
fast I would not have believed you. Because I did not believe this could happen? No. Because I was scared it
would. Medically and economically, a pandemic is detrimental. However environmentally?
It is quite the opposite.
As the rise in the number of cases moves from country to
country, there are noticeable changes in the consumption and travel habits of millions. Suddenly, the fear of
future shortage of supplies and decline in the health of oneself and loved ones linger in the mind. That trip to
your friend’s house does not seem that important anymore. Instead, you need to stay inside, not using the car,
limiting travel. The economy would tank, money needs to be saved carefully. Suddenly, you remember that you need
to go to the grocery store and stock up for days, maybe weeks. You cannot buy everything, only what you
absolutely need. That new pair of shoes or that box of donuts can wait until after we have an idea of what
tomorrow may bring. Less buying, less demand. Less demand, less manufacturing. Less manufacturing, less
greenhouse gases entering the air. Over time, this can have a huge effect. Even within the couple months that
coronavirus has shut down China, there has been a significant difference in the
density of pollution in the air. NASA noted that the decline in air pollution levels coincided with
restriction imposed on transportation and business activities, and as millions of people went into quarantine.
"This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event. "I am
not surprised because many cities nationwide have taken measures to minimise spread of the virus."" Fei Liu, an
air quality researcher at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement.
Nasa satellite images show that there has been a dramatic and significant decline in pollution
that has been
linked to the economic slowdown in China amid the coronavirus outbreak.
As researcher Liu said, the dramatic drop-off of air pollution levels is not surprising.
China has stopped all of
its manufacturing activity in an effort to tackle and reduce the damage of the coronavirus, and in a matter of a
month the difference in the particle density is inspiring. Yes, it took a lot to get to this point, for China had
to shut down all of its manufacturing efforts. That is dozens of millions of jobs at risk. Each paycheck has a
hungry worker attached to it. There is a lot riding on manufacturing in China, it cannot always be shut down.
However, it does not need to be completely shut down, it merely needs to reduce the amount of production to a
level that does not put so much toll on the planet. Due to the drastic reduction of fossil fuel use in February
alone there has been a 25% drop in the release of carbon emissions. This is equal
to an estimated 200 million tons of carbon dioxide.
It is not just in China, in Italy, where the virus has killed almost twenty thousand, canal
waters in Venice have
never looked cleaner. Due to the reduction in boat travel, there is less pollution
entering the water, bringing a rare occurence of beauty. In San Francisco, clearer skies are contradictory to the
overall dreary mood. The sky's the clearest it has been in a generation with the reduction of carbon emissions
from the absence of the usual high volume of cars, trucks, boats, trains, and buses.
Stinson Beach had clear skies and few people on March 26, 2020. Officials for the Bay Area Air
Quality Management District on Friday reported exceptionally good air quality as less people were on the roads and
many businesses have closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The upper deck of the Bay Bridge rests empty at 6:34 p.m. March 17 as seven Bay Area counties
enter the first day of shelter-in place-orders to slow coronavirus spread.
With many businesses’ shutting down due to lockdown’s across the country, the economy is
taking a huge hit. Earth
is getting a rare breath of fresh air as society breaks down. In one way, this may be an environmental miracle
that years of environmental activism did not achieve
Don’t get me wrong, the Coronavirus
pandemic is a tragedy. The overloaded hospitals and the unemployment could lead to economic disaster and the
suffering of millions of lives.
However, the ironic effect of the virus is displayed as it brings such devastation and
horror on one
side and such hope and promise on the other. As if the evil scales are tipped, the earth breathes for the first
time in a generation as the thousands are dead. The question is, how can we put both the environment and the
economic sides in balance without much compromise? This is what we need to focus on as a
society.
There will be challenges.
We need to
work for a lower amount of consumption of goods and fossil fuels released; however, we cannot shut down our
businesses. Some would say that taking radical environmental decisions would start a path to economic demise. If
we stop our economic growth voluntarily, the generations to come may be impacted. Some may believe we can not
enforce environmentally conscious actions in our society at this time. It would be too much to bear. To those
people I say:
You are wrong.
What will be too much to bear are the challenges that the future generations will have
to face:
droughts, hurricanes, tsunamis, heatwaves, glaciers melting, and many more devastating effects. Not only will
these global disasters occur more often but they will correlate with each other. For example, in early 2020
Australia faced devastating wildfires that resulted in 46 million acres(18.6 million
hectares) of vegetation and forest floor burned, killed at least 29 people, and destroyed more than 2,200
homes.
Climate change directly influenced the australian wildfires.
With the increased heat surrounding the climate, the vegetation and the soil dried out.
This drought created more
fuel for the fire to burn farther and faster. With less moisture in the air, the fire spread like there was no
tomorrow.
This is just one example.
Today, more than one million people in the world are infected with the Coronavirus. World
leaders
are scrambling to get the situation under control. Many say that this pandemic could have been avoided had leaders
taken it seriously when the initial signs of potential growth for the virus were present. Now many are paying the
price for the lack of preparedness of governments. Yes, this is a mistake that resulted in thousands of dead
lives; however, we will face similar consequences if we do not learn from this incident. History will repeat
itself. The Coronavirus Pandemic is temporary; scientists are predicting a vaccine to be made in the next
year. The effects of climate change on the other hand, they will be permanent. They
will hit us hard, harder than the Coronavirus. Let us not let history repeat itself; let us make changes in how we
live our life. I will talk more about these changes in my next post. Until then, I hope you enjoyed reading this
post and learned a little along the way.
Thanks for reading friends,
Avanthi
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