Can COVID 19 pandemic be a catalyst for real climate change?
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Are you worried about climate change? Do you feel the pandemic will worsen or help climate change across the world? These are questions that are often discussed by teens across the world. While the Covid 19 Pandemic has been costly, deathly, and has limited educational opportunities, the pandemic, believe it or not, has helped lower the impact climate change has had globally.
As bad as Covid has been the effect of people quarantining has had a uniquely positive effect on the climate. It’s a worldwide drop that scientists say could be the largest in recorded history.
The affect of the warming climate has been lowered because people stayed home, driven less, thus lowered the amount of carbon dioxide being spewed by cars and trucks. By staying indoors or at home significantly has reduced the amount of air pollution. Professor Piers Forster from the University of Leeds explains, “In contrast, with an economic recovery tilted towards green stimulus and reductions in fossil fuel investments, it is possible to avoid future warming of 0.3c by 2050.” He goes on to explain that by using less fuel and limiting travel is proving that in less than six months of “stay at home” mandates is a viable method to lower the carbon footprint in the atmosphere.
This does not mean one has to stop going out to be social or go to work, the data suggests that it means finding other ways to get outside is possible to affect the climate.
Ways to do to this might look like biking, walking, using an eclectic vehicle, or public transportation. By doing all of these things, we can help the climate correct itself adjusting the impact it is having on our planet Earth.
Carbon emissions dropped 17 percent globally amid coronavirus “Globally, we haven’t seen a drop this big ever, and at the yearly level, you would have to go back to World War II to see such a big drop in emissions. “
— University of East Anglia
A study shows a drop in daily global carbon emissions of 17 percent in April. Nonetheless, CO2 levels in the atmosphere reached their highest monthly average ever recorded in May — 417.1 parts per million. These studies may not seem very important, but years from now, the world could be in a much better place than ever before. COVID-19 has made life hard for many, but maybe if we look a litter closer, we see that it may have some good in it. To find out more information about how COVID-19 has changed our world, I have listed some sites you can use to continue the research.
https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2020/06/25/covid-19-impacts-climate-change/
https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/08/19/covid-emissions-climate-change/
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/c-change/subtopics/coronavirus-and-climate-change/
