As people suspend travel during this time of social distancing, Earth-observing satellites have recorded a marked reduction in air pollution in regions of the world most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The European Space Agency recently detected lower levels of nitrogen oxide in northern Italy and China’s Hubei province. NASA also has observed temporary drops in the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide over parts of the United States. It’s too early to know if people will change behaviors once the pandemic passes, but some view this as an opportunity to contemplate how our behaviors affect the health of the planet – and our own wellbeing.
Deborah Lawrence, a University of Virginia professor of environmental sciences, studies climate change. Here she offers her thoughts for readers of UVA Today.
Q. Is there possibly a silver lining, as has been suggested, to this reduced use of resources and activities, such as less flying?
A. I find it really hard to see a silver lining. Yes, greenhouse gas emissions are plummeting, but I never wanted to see it happen this way. No one did. The situation we find ourselves in, quite suddenly, is exactly what early, aggressive climate action is meant to avoid: catastrophic damage to our economy.
If we don’t act now on climate, meaning the now that begins as we emerge from the pandemic, we will face disaster after disaster, like last year’s flooding in the Midwest and in Mozambique, fires in California and Australia, droughts in the southeastern U.S. and in South Africa.
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