Reynard Loki - Here’s a major lesson from the pandemic: We can save the planet from climate change
Amidst all the
terrible news about the spreading coronavirus epidemic, a scintillating fact
has emerged that can energize the environmental movement: The global slowdown
in human activity has given Mother Nature some time to take a much-needed
breath of fresh air. Between travel restrictions, reductions in public
transport and overall economic activity that generates emissions—such as coal
burning, refining oil and producing steel—the climate is getting the kind of
rest from destructive human activity it hasn’t gotten since the dawn of the
Industrial Revolution.
The lockdown in China
(the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases), for example, has cut the
nation’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 100 million metric tons in just two
weeks, according to an analysis by Carbon Brief, a UK-based climate policy
watchdog. That’s down a quarter from the same two-week period in 2019.
Observations made by NASA and European Space Agency pollution monitoring
satellites appear to confirm the analysis. They show a sudden and steep decrease in nitrogen dioxide (NO2)—an
air pollutant emitted by power plants, factories and vehicles—over China during
mid-February when the nation entered a quarantine.... read more:
https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/heres-a-major-lesson-from-the-pandemic-we-can-save-the-planet-from-climate-change/see also
Owen Jones: Why don’t we treat the climate crisis with the same urgency as coronavirus?
Wiped out: America's love of luxury toilet paper is destroying Canadian forests
