COVID 19 will have an everlasting change in our lives and the earth. Due to this new era of quarantine, the pollution rates in major cities, such as Los Angeles, Toronto, New Delhi, New York and more have declined at a high rate. This pro in the pandemic was caused by the cons, as businesses started closing at a rapid pace because of the drop in demand of service industries, the air started to clear. As people started using their vehicles less, the carbon emissions dropped significantly. Experts from Columbia University say that carbon monoxide levels have dropped by fifty percent in New York City-based on the year-to-year average and this is due to the 35 percent decrease in traffic in the city.
Researchers from Sweden have discovered that transportation methods produce 23 percent of the world's carbon emissions and during the course of COVID 19, these have been cut because of the limited public interactions with people and unnecessary travel. Driving and air travel are key contributors to emissions from transport, contributing 72 percent and 11 percent of the transport sector’s greenhouse gas emissions respectively.
One of the biggest factors are decreased beach waste and environmental noise reduction. With the lack of tourists, major beaches such as Acapulco (Mexico), Barcelona (Spain), or Salinas (Ecuador) now look cleaner and with crystal clear waters. Unwanted noise from any type of activity can be annoying and harmful to the environment. This is one of the main sources of discomfort for people and the environment. However, due to the quarantine measures taken by people, commercial activities have almost entirely stopped. This caused the noise level in many cities to drop entirely.
While the pandemic has caused many hardships with many people, it is also important to focus on the lives of our population in the coming years. Although these changes may not remain permanent, this has given us an incredible chance of showing us what we are capable of. We do not need to have to come up with a colony on Mars to sustain our population but we can improve our life on Earth by continuing what we know we can do.
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