20 November 2020
Red & Black
Current Events 7
Current Events COVID-19 Impacts Water and Air Pollution Hayden Stein Red & Black Contributor
In response to the global COVID-19 outbreak, many countries went on a shut down, closing all non-essential businesses and travel in order to prevent the spread of the virus. Many of these business shutdowns resulted in a change in air pollution (specifically nitrogen dioxide levels) and water pollution for the countries that demanded them. In China, nitrogen dioxide levels decreased the most out of all the air pollutants with a 54 percent reduction. China’s water also had more dissolved oxygen concentration, which is an indicator of good quality. These changes in air and water quality are due to China’s strict business and travel laws since they saw an outbreak. In Italy, another country affected heavily by the virus, strict laws similar to China’s helped see an
improvement on air and water quality as well. The Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, claimed “We cannot waste time, we must put in place measures to avoid a generalized lockdown, which could severely compromise the economy.” While the first priority of these measures was no doubt the economy, the environment of Italy also benefited. The Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite footage revealed the nitrogen dioxide levels over Italy have significantly dropped from January to March and have stayed lower than what they were at before Italy restricted business and travel. The manager of the satellite, Callus Zehner, had this to say about the findings: “Although there could be slight variations in the data due to cloud cover and changing weather, we are very confident that the reduction in concentrations that we can see, coincides with the lockdown in Italy causing less traffic and industrial activities.” In addition to China and Italy, the United States has also seen an improvement in air quality. Nitrogen dioxide levels from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C. were down 30 percent from January to March, according to NASA satellite. The impact of COVID-19 on water quality in the United States is unclear, but efforts are being made to find a relationship between them. Maria
Courtesy Insider
Venice canals clear as residents self-isolate and tourists evacuate amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tzortziou, a professor at the City College of New York, said that “this project will help fill a gap in our fundamental understanding of the air-water exchange of nutrients and pollutants and how this affects and is influenced by environmental regulations, socioeconomic policy responses and decision making.” Although
these countries have seen an increase in air quality due to their social distancing laws, they will most likely be temporary. This increase has come at the expense of business owners and employees sacrificing their livelihoods, and the laws that caused these sacrifices will be lifted as soon as it is safely possible.
