As millions of humans stay home around the world, pollution is alleviating — temporarily.
Why it matters: Images of clear skies over China and California, or fish swimming in in Venice’s canals, are a glimpse of what it might look like if we took better care of the Earth. But, as much as people seem to love sharing those images now, none of it's likely to last.
Reality check: Much of this temporary environmental reprieve will diminish once the economy picks back up again.
- And of course, no one should want to curb pollution and tackle climate change via a deadly global pandemic, given the grave health and economic impacts the crisis is creating.
But one expert says images like these could instill in people more appreciation for clean skies and water, and motivate them to retain some of that even as we hop back into polluting cars, boats and airplanes again.
One level deeper: Locking down large parts of China to contain spread of the novel coronavirus could have saved nearly 80,000 lives by reducing pollution in those areas, a new study found.
Go deeper: Coronavirus shows how slow-moving climate change really is
Here's an unexpected side effect of the pandemic - the water's flowing through the canals of Venice is clear for the first time in forever. The fish are visible, the swans returned. pic.twitter.com/2egMGhJs7f
— Kaveri 🇮🇳 (@ikaveri) March 16, 2020
I am just stunned — absolutely stunned — by the air quality levels in Southern California right now. pic.twitter.com/hxf8CaRWFf
— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) March 18, 2020
A new animation showing the variation of nitrogen dioxide emissions over #China (Dec-March) – thanks to @CopernicusEU #Sentinel5P data.
— ESA EarthObservation (@ESA_EO) March 19, 2020
Sentinel-5P currently provides the most accurate measurements of NO2 and other trace gases from space.
ℹ️https://t.co/Gn9mvSnIu6 pic.twitter.com/nDLrboKnXG
