Hello and welcome back to another post!
The pandemic has affected us all in many ways but what about the environment.
How has it been affected? Today we'll be going into that.
How did it start?
So COVID-19 broke out in late 2019 in China but how it started is still a
greatly controversial topic. Prof Stephan Turner told The Guardian
in an
online article
in April:
[...] says what’s most likely is that virus originated in bats.
However, how it transferred to humans still isn't 100% certain. Scientists
mostly agree that it didn't come directly from a bat, but instead was
transferred through another animal. Regardless of how it reached humans, the
main idea is that it came from a live animal, either in a food market or in
the
meat industry. Either way, it was our mistreatment of animals that lead to this disastrous
pandemic that has claimed the lives of over 6.5 million people!
Emissions
When many businesses, industries and factories closed down, there was a rapid
decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, which has been very good for the
climate. There was up 50% reduction of certain greenhouse gases in China due
to an industry shutdown. There was a 70% decrease in NO2 and PM2.5 in India's
capital, Dehli. There was up to a 70% drop in passenger flights in China.
However, emissions went back up as the demand for face masks got bigger. The
plastic in the masks needed up to 30 tons of CO2 per mask (mostly for
transportation).
Air pollution
In New York, there was a nearly 50% reduction in air pollution during the
lockdown, due to fewer people going out and therefore fewer cars on the roads.
Car use also dropped by 40-50% in some European cities.
Fossil fuel use
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), oil demand has dropped 435,000 barrels globally in the first three months of 2020, compared to the same period of last year
(Quote) Coal use also dropped by about 35% in the world's biggest consumer, China.
Water pollution
Due to factories in developing countries such as India and Bangladesh closing,
water pollution dropped massively, or even stopped completely in some areas.
The water quality became incredible within the first lockdown and is still
above the levels it was before the pandemic.
Waste
Unfortunately, there was a huge increase in medical waste. Test kits, masks,
medical gloves, the use of one way plastic has increased massively. A lot of
which has ended up in the ocean. Read more in our article
here.
Animals
As lockdowns around the world come to an end and people go back to their day
jobs and school, there has been an obvious increase in the amount of abanded
teenage dogs. Animal sanctuaries and rescue homes are filled to capacity. So,
why? Well, during lockdown most people had lots of spare time on their hands.
So what did they do? They got puppies for the family. Dog breeders saw a large
increase in sales as more and more people brought young puppies. This wasn't a
problem until the lockdowns stopped and people returned to work. They suddenly
realised that they didn't have enough time to look after a young dog. Also,
now that the puppies were no longer puppies, they were often not as sweet
looking. So people just abandoned them! This is a major problem and needs to
stop.
Conclusion
In conclusion, COVID was good for the environment during the first few months
but soon became a huge problem due to
tons of extra plastic waste in our oceans
and greenhouse gas emissions in mask & testing kits factories. Also,
increased internet use led to higher electricity usage in private households.
Next year, we will be discontinuing the Top Tips series. It has been a cool
series to write but now it's time for something new. Here's
the vote so
that you can decide what we do next year!
Your Green World Blog Teamš
Sources:
The image in this post in owned by a blog editor.
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