Did the Pandemic Help Save the Climate Crisis?

While reading my latest book, NO ONE IS TOO SMALL TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE by Greta Thunberg, I wondered what effects worldwide shutdowns for a year might have made on the environment. Surely, working at home, less travel, and less consumerism must have made a dent in pollution rates. Greta, a fifteen-year-old Swedish student was inspired to take on the world over her concerns for the planet, a topic we all hear about, get momentarily concerned about, and then forget about as we go out and buy a new gas-guzzler.

Greta became an activist and gained fame when she took a protest day to speak and shame adults for their lack of action. Millions of students followed her lead and she became a spokesperson for the cause. This book, a great 2 hour read, is a collection of her speeches to the United Nations, the US Capitol and others. Her activism is a wake-up call to the world and me. Recycling and turning off lights is just not going to beat the clock which is ticking quickly towards critical mass.

Did something as horrible as the Covid-19 pandemic make a difference? As we complete one year of the pandemic the figures are coming out on this phenomenon. Three billion people have been in some sort of lockdown, air, train, bus and car travel has gone way down, and we are starting to see that our stay-at-home lifestyle is bringing some positive effects like a reductions on the emission of pollutants in the atmosphere. Nitrogen dioxide levels decreased 25-50% in many parts of the world, but as openings resume those levels are going upwards.

But one of the greatest changes is in the increase of domestic (15-25%), and hospital solid waste (10 to 20 times the normal). The Corona contaminated waste also must be separated and disposed of differently.

As we go forward towards normalizing our lives some behavioral changes may affect the environment positively, such as working from home more often, which could minimize gridlock on the highways and help control greenhouse gasses. As the world enjoys cleaner air and sees what it takes to breathe clean air there might be more motivation to continue to make personal choices to help save our planet. We can hope so and also make some changes.