Coronavirus and the Environment

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it has caused huge changes in the daily lives of people living in the UK and around the world, and as a result we have shifted from concrete to nature.

The lockdown means that certain people can work from home, but those who cannot work from home such as key workers, do not have that luxury. Inadvertently, this has allowed the environment to improve, as there are less people on the roads leading to less pollution overall.

There is less traffic due to the non-essential travel being banned and only places such as supermarkets, select restaurants (who offer a delivery service) and chemists are allowed to be open, but must adhere to the social distancing measures.

People are only allowed to go out for work, shopping for essentials, looking after vulnerable people and exercise. With most people having to travel to go work, the only options for some are food and exercise.

Transportation and economic growth causes pollution so the reduction of both has done wonders for the environment.

Here is a video showing how empty one of London’s major areas Oxford Circus is.

Due to people not wanting to be stuck at home, they are going out to exercise. The streets and shops are not being filled up anymore and has led to large amount of people occupying parks instead.

People are going out for their daily exercise as there is nothing else to do, and it has been shown that exercise can help improve your mental health, and in times like this, people must use nature to help combat their issues.

With humans off the streets, animals are becoming more active, as lots of them have been able to explore without having to worry about humans being in their way.

In major cities, food stores are just a walking distance away, so people are not driving around to add to the carbon emissions.

Global carbon emissions from the fossil fuel industry will most likely fall by a record 2.5bn tonnes this year, a reduction of 5%.

This is the biggest drop in demand for fossil fuels on record. Data shows a drop in small particle pollution from 3/4 to 1/2 in London, Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff, and with falls of about quarter in Manchester.

This means that this tragedy has a silver lining in the bigger picture. Environmentalists will be looking at this outbreak as a positive for the world, as transport is the biggest carbon producing industry. The aviation industry has also reduced flights, which means less carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere.

It is not only the UK that is experiencing all this change, it is happening in other sovereign states with over 100 countries worldwide having either a full or partial lockdown by the end of March 2020.

More than a third of the world’s population is now living under some form of lockdown due to coronavirus. That is around 3 billion people of out 7 billion.

In Italy, the Venice canals have cleared up and have become more transparent due to the reduction of boats in the canals. Which means fish have returned to the waters as there is a major reduction of pollution.

However, is the loss of human life worth the benefits? That is the question we will have to ask ourselves and will we go back to undoing all the positive effects that the virus has had?

By Rajay Walker