Impacts of covid-19 on climate change

Due to coronavirus, many wildlife species have taken over the busy empty roads. From goats conquering empty British village streets to monkeys in cities of Thailand. There has been a clear decrease in emissions of NO2. All the significant emission industries are related to the fossil fuel industry. The transportation lockdown and a decrease in production due to lack of consumption have had a significant impact on climate around the world. Increase in air quality in Bejing and some parts of Europe are definitely due to restrictions of coronavirus. Tourist hotspots, like Venice, which normally overflooded with tourists and boats in canals is nearly empty and has clearer water. Aircraft industry which is responsible for 7% greenhouse gas emission has become lifeless. People in the short term have started to breath better air but the question is for how long. 

This image was captured by NASA

How would have imagined a disease in just 4 months of human transmission complete shut down global economies? The clear and steep drop in nitrogen dioxide from NASA images shows a sharp decline due to a decrease in human activity. India, in particular, has emerged as major air polluter in recent years. According to the World Health Organisation's Ambient Air Pollution Database, 13 of the top 20 cities in the world with the highest annual level of PM2.5 are now in India, with Delhi featuring at the top of the list. According to Dr.Aaron Bernstein director of Harvard climate change, air pollution has increased the risk of people dying from Covid-19 in the United States and even has the same source. The research looked at the air pollution levels across the country over the past 15 years and people who are living in places with worse air pollution have a greater risk of dying in those cities in particular. It found that for every increase of 1microgram per cubic meters there was a 15% death rate difference. This means if the pollution level was increased by 5microgram per cubic meters there will be an increase in 75% more cases than the existing ones. 

Pandemic is interconnected with the virus. Mostly the deforestation rate has increased the transmission from animals to humans. A Stanford study looked at the contact between human and primates in western Uganda. The authors looked at satellite data of forest law and conducted interviews of the people living around the forest. They found that the destruction of forest increases animal-human conflict. Thus increasing the chance that it would be transmitting from animals to humans. "As we shrink the areas where the animals live, they are forced to closer and closer contact with humans." Katherine Hayhoe explains "As the geographical range of their food resources shift, and as increasing droughts and storms affect their food ability, animals are again forced in closer contact with human population to look for food". And as we continue wildlife trafficking it also increases the risk for these diseases jumping from animal to human population, which was clearly the cases in this disease. The ecological destruction is increasing the chances of human transmission of such diseases. These destructions are creating a biological storm and entering the human population as coronavirus pandemic. So clearly human activities have increased the transmission of such diseases. Also, the illegal and legal wildlife trade that we saw in Wuhan and around the world has clearly devastated our livelihood. 

Once the pandemic is over we can implement a lot of different strategies that can help the climate. We have confined our offices from a worldwide family to a small place we call our homes. The global number of webinars and zoom meeting have gone up on the rate never seen in human history. IPCC has conducted a virtual meeting for the time in its history, for preparation of sixth assessment report only for the working group 3.

As Winston Churchill said 'Don't let a good crisis go to waste'. So, this is certainly an opportunity to accelerate some of the transitions to clean energy like fossil fuel subsidy reform. If fossil fuel energy prices are low, let's reform those subsidies and redirect them to the green industry. If there is a need to invest in public funds to create jobs, let's make sure the jobs are helping the community in desperate need and that might give solution to smaller climatic emergencies. We need to seize it now as we all are at the risk of losing these provisional opportunities. This pandemic has exposed how criminally underfunded the crucial sectors like healthcare and education are. 

The US Senate passed a $2trillion stimulus bill in response to this pandemic called Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Stability Act(CARES), which is the largest American relief package in modern American history. But CARES fails to extend the federal tax credit for green industries. Additionally, it provides $58billion to the airline industry. This bill would have been very effective if the aid to the airline was provided with a prior agreement to delivery of a decrease in at least 50% of greenhouse gas emission within 30-50 years. Considering the fact that the aviation industry is responsible for 7% global greenhouse gas emission.

If the cheap credit is given to heavy industry, jobs are created through new infrastructure projects, mostly construction, and most importantly freezing transition to renewables is more likely to be worse for the environment than good. The suspension of environmental protection laws around the world is more likely to have a negative than a positive impact.

There have been clear effects of sensory deprivation and on extreme levels suicides due to solitary confinement in prisons. But no studies have shown the physiological impact of self-imposed quarantine on mental health. The US Labour Department released a report stating 3.8million people file for benefits in just the past week taking total jobless to 30million over the last six weeks. Then there is shadow pandemic of domestic violence that is camouflaged under the bigger threat of coronavirus. United Nations population fund recently tweeted, "If the lockdown continuous for at least six months, 31million additional cases of gender-based violence could be expected to occur". We can see there has been a relatively more devastating impact on the countries that were on economic meltdown prior to the virus. PIGS nations, in particular, have seen the number of infections growing exponentially.

There is still a lot to learn about this virus. The zoonotic disease like HIV, SARS, rabies, plague, etc has had a terrifying impact on humans in the past. But clearly, we have not learnt our lessons from our past. This disease will essentially change the fundamental way we trust each other and increase societal oppression. We have seen the oil prices crash but the major governmental response was not to invest in cleaner solutions available. Incentivisation in this kind of global pandemic is an unparalleled positive response. But the clearest options might not be viable and acceptable. A post COVID stimulus for clean energy or societal polarisation, the choice is ours. "Tough times never last but tough people do". So take individual responsibility now and move forward towards better.

Note- In this particular article we have used a lot of video resources due to lack of credible and public sources. If any particular relation is wrong, let us know.