COVID ‘lockdowns’ improved air quality
GENEVA, Sept 7, (AP): The UN weather agency says the world — and especially urban areas — experienced a brief, sharp drop in emissions of air pollutants last year amid lockdown measures and related travel restrictions put in place over the coronavirus pandemic.
The World Meteorological Organization, releasing its first ever Air Quality and Climate Bulletin on Friday, cautioned that the reductions in pollution were patchy - and many parts of the world showed levels that outpaced air quality guidelines. Some types of pollutants continued to emerge at regular or even higher levels.
“COVID-19 proved to be an unplanned air-quality experiment, and it did lead to temporary localized improvements,” said Petteri Taalas, the WMO secretary-general. “But a pandemic is not a substitute for sustained and systematic action to tackle major drivers of both population and climate change and so safeguard the health of both people and planet.”
The WMO study analyzed changes in air quality around the main pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and ozone. The Geneva-based agency noted an “unprecedented decrease” in pollutant emissions as many governments restricted gatherings, closed schools, and imposed lockdowns.
Oksana Tarasova, head of WMO’s atmospheric environment research division, said the impact of such measures on major pollutants was short-lived. When measures to reduce mobility mean “there are no cars on the street, you see the improvement in air quality immediately. And of course, as soon as the cars go back on the street, you get the worsening back.”
That compared to “long-lead greenhouse gases” behind global warming like carbon dioxide, whose atmospheric levels can take many years to change.
WMO cited declines of up to nearly 70% in average levels of nitrogen oxides, which are largely emitted through transportation and burning of fossil fuels. It also noted up to 40% drops — the biggest ones recorded in southeast Asia — of average levels of tiny particulate matter in the air during full lockdown measures last year, compared to the same periods from 2015 to 2019.
Nitrogen oxides also destroy ozone in the air. Partially as a result of the drop in nitrogen oxides, ozone levels — which vary depending on location — remained flat or slightly increased in some places. Carbon monoxide levels fell in all regions, especially South America.
One conundrum for policy makers is that some pollutants like sulfur dioxide in the air actually help to cool the atmosphere, partially offsetting the impacts of climate change.
Tarasova said air quality was “very complex” and noted that events like wildfires in Australia, smoke from biomass burning in Siberia and the United States, and the “Godzilla effect” — in which sand and dust drift from the Sahara Desert across the Atlantic to North America — also had effects on air quality last year.
Forever chemicals: High levels of toxic, widely used “forever chemicals” contaminate groundwater around at least six military sites in the Great Lakes region, according to US Department of Defense records that an environmental group released Tuesday.
The Environmental Working Group said PFAS, an abbreviation for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have oozed into the Great Lakes and pose a risk to people who eat fish tainted with the chemicals.
Pentagon documents show at least 385 military installations nationwide are polluted with PFAS, mostly from firefighting foam used widely in training exercises, the group said.
“If you are relying on well water and are near one of these bases where PFAS has been confirmed in the groundwater, you should be concerned,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs. “And you should be doubly concerned if you are near one of the hundreds of bases where PFAS is suspected but not confirmed.”
Asked for comment, a Pentagon spokesman referred to remarks by Richard Kidd, deputy assistant secretary of defense for environment and energy resilience, during a July 14 public discussion on PFAS. Kidd said it would take “years to fully define cleanup requirements the department faces, and probably decades before that cleanup is complete.”
“We are intent on making sustained progress on all PFAS challenges,” Kidd said, adding that cleanup costs were estimated at $2 billion.
A review of department records showed PFAS has been detected at levels up to 213,000 parts per trillion at the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda, Michigan, which closed in 1993, the Environmental Working Group said.
State officials discovered the contamination in 2010. The Air Force is treating PFAS-contaminated groundwater at some sites in the area, but local residents and members of Congress have called the actions insufficient and demanded a stronger and faster approach.
The environmental group said its study turned up high readings at five other Great Lakes bases.
Combined levels of PFOA and PFOS, two of the most commonly used chemicals in the group, reached as high as 1.3 million ppt at Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station in Niagara County, New York.
Other readings included 135,000 ppt of the compound PFHxS at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee; 82,000 ppt of PFOA and PFOS at Alpena County Regional Airport in Michigan; 17,000 ppt of PFOS at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Mount Clemens, Michigan; and 5,400 ppt of PFHxS at Duluth International Airport in Minnesota.
Most civilian airports also have firefighting foam containing PFAS and some have released it to the environment during emergency fire suppression and training, said Melanie Benesh, the group’s legislative attorney. Federal regulations require that airports be equipped with foams meeting military specifications, although Congress has ordered the Federal Aviation Administration to allow foams without PFAS.
The Biden administration is developing national standards for triggering PFAS cleanups in drinking water and groundwater. The Environmental Protection Agency presently has a non-enforceable health advisory level of 70 ppt for PFOS and PFOA for drinking water.
The compounds are called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment or the human body and can accumulate over time. They have been linked to a variety of health problems including cancer, liver damage and decreased fertility.
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BERLIN: A major maritime industry association on Monday backed plans for a global surcharge on carbon emissions from shipping to help fund the sector’s shift toward climate-friendly fuels.
The International Chamber of Shipping said it’s proposing to the United Nations that all vessels trading globally above a certain size should pay a set amount per metric ton of carbon dioxide they emit.
The group, representing commercial shipowners and operators covering over 80% of the world merchant fleet, didn’t specify what carbon price it would support.
The shipping industry is estimated to account for nearly 3% of the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving global warming and projected to rise significantly in the coming decades.
Environmental campaigners welcomed the ICS submission to the International Maritime Organization, but cautioned that the extent of its ambition remains unclear.
“We will know they are serious about real progress when they embrace a level of ambition consistent with what climate vulnerable island nations have already proposed,” said Aoife O’Leary, director of global transportation at the Environmental Defense Fund.