Covid-19 gives world a pollution respite

SOUTH Africa, and the world, is changing since the Covid-19 pandemic – literally. This pandemic has given Mother Nature a gap to take back the Earth that humanity had taken from it with its assault on her essential life systems. It appears nature is taking a breath when the rest of us are holding ours.

Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) via their website, advise that they are conducting research on how the earth is reacting to Covid-19 with the change in human behaviour. The European Space Agency (ESA) also provides astonishing colour-coded satellite pictures of our planet. Both these agencies confirm the sharp decline of carbon emissions since the lockdown has become the norm worldwide.

Due to lockdowns in countries throughout the world, human behaviour has changed extraordinarily. Lockdowns started with China with their localised quarantine from January 23 in Wuhan City and other neighbouring cities in the Hubei province. This is significant considering that Wuhan alone accounts for 11 million people.

Despite the relatively short time where humans have slowed down in every way, already the planet is reclaiming what belongs to it.Bloomberg reported that there was a significant reduction of NO2 levels, or air pollution, over China. This reduction equates to almost 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide) in China and could curb global emissions from air travel by 11% to 19%. An environmental resource economist, Marshall Burke, calculates that the two months of pollution reduction has saved the lives of 4 000 children under-5 and 73 000 adults over 70 in China.

It’s early days so there is limited data, but already satellite images show a dramatic drop between January 1 to March 11 in air pollution over northern Italy, particularly NO2 which is mainly emitted by cars, trucks, power plants and industrial plants.

Since social distancing practices were instituted in American cities, they appear to have shown decreased air pollution. The New York Times reported huge declines in pollution over major metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Chicago and Atlanta.

To bring home the point on pollution, Jos Lelieveld, a physicist from the Cyprus Institute states the number of deaths and the loss in life expectancy from air pollution rival the effect of tobacco smoking and are much higher than other causes of death, such as malaria, violence, HIV/ Aids, alcohol and drug abuse. There’s no disputing that air pollution is one of humankind’s greatest killers.

MANNY DE FREITAS | Cape Town