Nitrogen dioxide levels in China ebbed after the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, particularly after the outbreak was first announced and when lockdown measures were introduced.
A silver lining of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been the temporary environmental benefits that various lockdown measures have brought about.
These are likely to end as lockdown measures are eased; indeed, air pollution from traffic is likely to be worse, as people may prefer driving to using public transit. Still, lockdowns have allowed people to see the effects of significant societal changes on the environment.
A new special collection of papers in the journal Science Advances will explore the relationship between pandemics, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the environment — emphasizing the ways that global processes are interconnected.
The special collection was commissioned by Science Advances Deputy Editors Prof. Kip Hodges, of the Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, and Prof. Jeremy Jackson, of the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
In their editorial to the special collection, Profs. Hodges and Jackson write, “Economic lockdowns this year, designed to slow the spread of COVID-19, have been like pressing the pause button on environmental degradation, and the resulting reductions in air and water pollution are dramatic.”
“Such trends remind us of how much our actions drive environmental quality and just how badly we have behaved as stewards of our planet.”
For the team, a key question concerns the world’s response to these environmental issues following the pandemic’s resolution.
They note, “We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink how we grow back our economies in a way that does not imperil the global environment as we have in recent decades.”
They recommend: heav