Third Entry

 

The Good and the bad side of the pandemic in the environment

We can all agree that Covid 19 has put a lot of pressure in our society, here are some of the long lasting effects that the pandemic will have in our society (The British Academy, 2021):

·         The Widening of geographic inequalities

·         Worsened health outcomes and growing health inequalities

·         Pressure on revenue streams across the economy

·         Rising unemployment and changing labor markets.

But I feel like it’s also important to analyze the impacts of Covid 19 in the environment, since this is a problem that has affected the whole world, not only humans.

The good side.

Reduction of air pollution and Greenhouse gasses emission.

The pandemic forced all economic production to come to a halt, people weren’t allowed to go out of  their houses and industries were shutdown, in the following graphic we can see the main sources of GHGs emission

Graphic: Climate Watch, The World Resources institute, 2020. Global greenhouse gas emission by sector [Graphic]. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/ghg-emissions-by-sector

The graphic shows that 40,4% of GHG’s emission comes from energy used in transportation systems (16,2%) and the energy use in industries (24,2%) which were the activities that were affected the most during the pandemic, activities which consume a lot of fossil fuels. Levels of air pollution in both New York and China diminished by 50% due to the measures taken to control the spread of the virus (Rume T, Islam SD, 2020).

Reduction of water pollution.

This is another benefit of industries closing down, since it is known that some industries dump their waste (like oil and toxic chemicals) on nearby rivers, “For instance, the river Ganga and Yamuna have reached a significant level of purity due to the absence of industrial pollution on the days of lockdown in India” (Rume T, Islam SD, 2020). Also, with less economic activity during the pandemic, the movement of ships and other vessels is reduced globally, diminishing marine pollution also. (Rume T, Islam SD, 2020).

Ecological restoration of tourists spots

Due to the pandemic tourism was reduced all over the world, as you probably have seen already, the places that receive the most tourists always end up the most polluted and filled with thrash. With these places empty with no one to be seen, cleaning is more effective and nature can regain balance on its own.

The bad side.

A very obvious negative effect of the pandemic in the environment is the immense increase of biomedical waste (masks, gloves, one use medical equipment), an example of this is in Wuhan, which produced 240 metric tons of medical waste every day during the time of the outbreak. (Saadat et al., 2020 as cited by Rume T, Islam SD, 2020).

Brann N, 2020. Face masks collected at the Soko islands by OceansAsia. [Picture] Retrieved from: https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/more-than-1-56-billion-face-masks-could-end-up-polluting-oceans-report-1.5221239

In conclusion, the Covid 19 pandemic has shown us how much of an impact we have on the environment, just one year of reduced human activity gives the environment the ability to heal itself back up a little, we need to be aware of the big burden we are putting the environment through every day and act on it before its too late. Now that the economy is at an all-time low, we need to find a way to make it work together with the environment, since all we are doing is abusing it day by day.

 

References.

 

The British Academy. 2021. The long term societal impacts of Covid-19. Retrieved from: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications/covid-decade-understanding-the-long-term-societal-impacts-of-covid-19/

Rume T, Islam SD. 2020. Environmental effects of COVID-19 pandemic and potential strategies of sustainability. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7498239/#bib82 DOI:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04965

Climate Watch, The World Resources institute, 2020. Global greenhouse gas emission by sector [Graphic]. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/ghg-emissions-by-sector

Brann N, 2020. Face masks collected at the Soko islands by OceansAsia. [Picture] Retrieved from: https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/more-than-1-56-billion-face-masks-could-end-up-polluting-oceans-report-1.5221239