The environmental silver lining

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing enormous disruption to many parts of our lives – our health, our jobs, the economy, and our sense of security. It’s a devastating and global catastrophe. But one small silver lining is that it is creating a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to realise the environmental effect of our usual levels of human activity, and how quickly the natural world rebounds when we’re quarantined at home.

Source: The Financial Times

Economic activity and air pollution have a strong correlation; while great strides have been made towards clean energy there is much further to go. About 75% of energy in the EU still comes from non-renewable sources, and less than 5% of new vehicle sales are electric. The result is not just contributing to climate change, but also to air and water pollution. The chart above picks up NO2 levels, a dangerous air pollutant generated by industrial production processes and combustion engines like those of most of the cars still on the road.

Northern Italy has a high level of air pollution in usual circumstances, a factor that some suggest has led to the higher COVID-19 death rate in the country due to existing respiratory conditions related to poor air quality. A silver-lining to the COVID-19 caused shutdowns across many countries in recent weeks has been a significant reduction in NO2, visible in these satellite photos. There is some hope that this creates a faint virtuous circle – while the aggressive proliferation of the COVID-19 virus results in economic shutdowns, the cleaner air, as a result, could reduce the risk to human life.

Also reported from Italy is a fantastic return of wildlife to places previous swamped with human activity. Venice, a city that is overrun with 36m visitors each year, has seen canal water significantly cleaner than in years with schools of fish making appearances. In other ports in Italy and Sardinia there have been sightings of dolphins close to the harbours, previously busy with ferries full of tourists.

These changes are likely to be seen across the world, as commercial and tourism activity in more and more countries come to a screeching halt. What the example of Italy demonstrates is what would be possible if we succeeded in transitioning to a clean energy system. This period of time acts as an experiment on what air quality would be if cars were electric, if fewer people commuted because of more trust in working-from-home infrastructure, if industrial sites captured their emissions and what the water quality would be if international cargo and tourists were transported in less pollutive ways. It also demonstrates that these things are achievable quickly – the air does clear, and wildlife does return – which means collective action really can have a significant impact.


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