Hi everyone! We hope you enjoy reading this post about how COVID-19 is impacting the global environment in different ways . Before we dive in, we'd like to mention that we will be including a 'top tips' section at the bottom of every post so that we provide you with small ways to live more sustainably each week, so make sure to read until the end!
Anthropogenic emissions:
some promising change that the pandemic has created for the global environment is a global reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions and global air pollution. Unsurprisingly as flights have been cancelled, fewer cars have been on the roads and global travel has come to a halt due to multiple lockdown enforcements across the world, climate change and global warming is temporarily occurring at a lower level. For example China is one of the world's largest air polluters, yet as manufacturing has come to a close in the country as well as travel, there has been a 25% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions!
This reduction in emissions will help to slow the greenhouse effect, and as many states enter a second lockdown, we could maybe even see a further reduction in these emissions.
However this may not necessarily reduce our annual figure for CO2 emission this year. This is because although it has been suggested by a study published in May 2018 suggested that there could be projections a steep decline of 7% by the end of this year - the lowest level since World War 2 , CO2 emissions were still at their highest level in history in May 2020 - when lockdown restrictions slowly began to ease.
But there is still hope: Given the new tech-centric and virtual ways of living and working that have arisen due to the Coronavirus pandemic, fewer people feel the need to travel on a daily basis. Scientists therefore believe that as we start to shift towards developing greener economies ,together as a global society, using the technology that exists as well as forthcoming technological advancements, we could be able to limit Climate Change and global warming. To do this must sustain this structural change of utilising and emitting fewer fossil fuels, as well as making sure we promote the use of more technology to really witness environmental restoration - only then will we be able to propose that changes due to the pandemic are causing an actual drop in global temperatures.
Water Quality and Biodiversity
Venice in Italy has experienced improved water quality within their famous 'La Serenissima canals'. Overall numbers of tourists visiting Venice has dramatically reduced due to an international ban on travel. Therefore boats that were frequently used for tours of the island, which heavily polluted the canals, have stopped operating. This has increased sediment settling and reduced water pollution within the canals, Local people were also pleased with this transition as there had already been protests within the city against over-tourism within the country under the slogan "No Grande Navi" meaning "No more Cruise ships".
In terms of biodiversity, many different species across the globe have been spotted returning to natural environments they would originally avoid due to human activity. For example sea turtles have been spotted reappearing on the Bay of Bengal. Even politically unstable countries like Myanmar are seeing the importance of increasing biodiversity, and have started to allow the breeding of endangered species such tigers and elephants during the pandemic.
However its also to be noted that unfortunately, levels of poaching for rhino horns in Africa has risen and rates of illegal deforestation in Brazil have surged during the pandemic, as many financially insecure people resort to illegal activities to survive the high levels of global unemployment experienced across the world as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Plastic pollution
One aspect of pollution that has become increasingly detrimental for the environment during the pandemic has been plastic pollution. As wearing masks and gloves become a necessity for everyone to stop the spread of the disease, a large proportion of people have been opting to use disposable medical masks - manufacturers have even started to produce them in different colours instead of blue due to high demand from people who would like a their mask to be more of a 'fashionable accessory'. But what many people do not understand is why wearing these masks is so much more lethal than fabric masks. As people start to dispose of their masks on a daily basis, PPE littering increases. This is causing an extensive amount disregarded masks and other plastic equipment to accumulate in aquatic environments from rivers and lakes , to oceans. This plastic is then ingested by species such as turtles as well as terrestrial creatures like birds , and they do tend to become tangled up with species (due to the strings on the masks) , which is causing many species to suffer greatly. Consequently levels of biodiversity are plummeting across numerous ecosystems, adding to levels of species extinction.
TOP TIPS FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING
We are aware that it is worrying to see how the natural environment is being damaged by human activity during the Coronavirus pandemic, however there are ways you can help.
To follow on from our previous point, the first top tip this week for you all is:
1) STOP USING DISPOSABLE MASKS!
There are many sustainable and reusable options, so please stop opting for the plastic ones , and invest in reusable masks - not only do they come in an abundance of styles and colours (catering to all fashionable needs) , they are actually a more economically viable option too
Please try to remember to bring your own reusable masks into school to also help to reduce your reliance on using plastic masks provided by school, which will help the school to contribute less to plastic pollution.
Our second and final tip for this week requires some independent research:
As it stands so far, according to scientists it seems that COVID-19 is a disease that circulated in bats and has spread to humans due to the cultural custom of the consumption of bats in China (Wuhan).
However did you know that pandemics could be become increasingly common and frequent in the near future ?
You may be thinking: How is this possible? and, why is this the case?
Well this is where tip number two comes in...
2) WATCH 'EXTINCTION - THE FACTS' (DOCUMENTARY BY SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH)
If you'd like to know more about why this may be the case, we highly recommend watching this documentary. This documentary is very interesting as it elaborates on how disturbances to the natural equilibrium (balance) of many ecosystems as a result of environmental destruction, is not only exacerbating climate change, but also causing more diseases with pandemic potential to be spread. It therefore really helps to highlight the importance of environmental conservation-especially if we do not want the current situation to become normality!
The documentary obviously does goes into much more detail than what we have mentioned above, so we do urge you all to give this a watch - it is currently being streamed on BBC iPlayer:
link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000mn4n/extinction-the-facts
We hope this post was interesting and you learned something new, and understand how the COIVD-19 pandemic and the consequent changes to our normal lifestyle is affecting the environment in different ways.
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