“This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event.”
The planet needed to catch a break, and it has caught a break — however temporary that break turns out to be. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and ensuing government edicts in developed countries to ‘social distance’ and ‘self-isolate’ has led to an unexpected side effect. As the normally traffic-clogged streets of Wuhan in China’s Hubei province — and the crowded canals of Venice, for that matter — slow down in the wake of pandemic quarantines, pollution levels have dropped and the brackish water in Venice’s canals has cleared, thanks to the decrease in activity.
Of course, social media being what it is, some reactions have been overheated, with everything from reports of dolphins cavorting in the newly clear canals (not true) to a fanciful tale about a dozen elephants that invaded a village in China’s Yunan province in celebration and drank 30kg of corn wine, getting stinking drunk in the process and passing out in farmers’ fields. (Sadly, also not true.)
Research from a 2016 study, as cited just this past week in National Geographic, shows that our need to share emotional, positive posts on social media during moments of crisis follows the same model as the contagion of pandemics — when fake news goes viral, if you will.
That said, there are indications, based on hard science, such as the attached heat imaging satellite captures from NASA that show a marked decrease of pollution in central China over an eight-week period — from Jan. 1, 2020 to Feb. 25, roughly over the course of the coronavirus contagion in Wuhan, the city where the pandemic is said to have started, if not originated exactly. (The jury is still out on that question, and involves everything from bats and flying foxes to pangolins and so-called “wet markets,” meat markets where living animals are sold as delicacies.)
CNN International’s Hong Kong bureau reports that the number of “good quality air days” increased by 20% in February over the same period last year, citing figures provided by China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment. (Yes, China has an environment ministry.)
China was at the tip of the spear in taking dramatic measures to minimize the spread of the virus — measures that are now being repeated across Europe and North America.
Even as the price of oil has crashed, slowed use of burning fossil fuels such as coal has shown carbon emissions to drop by 25% or more across China, this according to the research NGO Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
As China is responsible for 30% of the world’s carbon emissions, that drop is substantial and has had a noticeable effect on the environment, not just locally to Hubei province but across wide swaths of central and southeast Asia.
There is a concern that once the coronavirus threat has passed — if it passes — the world’s efforts will be focused solely on rebooting the economy, which would come at the expense of the environment.
That said, the decline in harmful pollutants comes in direct correlation with government measures requiring more people to work from home, the closure of public facilities and the closure of international borders, which has reduced traffic congestion at the very least.
However brief this period of respite proves to be, it hints at a need to make longer-term changes — more solar power, for example, and less electricity generated by fossil fuels.
At the time of the NASA study, China was the country most seriously affected by coronavirus, since surpassed — in deaths, anyway — by Italy. At the time there were nearly 3,000 deaths across 56 countries. As of writing, there have been 10,500 deaths based on 260,000 cases, 160,000 active and 100,500 closed. The clock is ticking. Business as usual is no longer all that.
@NASA via Twitter