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Assignment 2: Effects of COVID-19 On Pollution

This document is a student assignment analyzing the effects of COVID-19 on pollution levels. It summarizes two journal articles finding that lockdowns resulting from the pandemic led to significant reductions in air pollution. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels dropped dramatically in Wuhan, China and other regions as transportation, industry, and other activities were halted. The assignment discusses how working from home and online education adopted during the pandemic could help sustain lower pollution levels after restrictions are lifted, but pollution would still likely rise without continuing some practices. It concludes that minimizing post-lockdown increases in environmental pollution is achievable if lessons from the temporary reductions are applied.

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Kishan Patel
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42 views

Assignment 2: Effects of COVID-19 On Pollution

This document is a student assignment analyzing the effects of COVID-19 on pollution levels. It summarizes two journal articles finding that lockdowns resulting from the pandemic led to significant reductions in air pollution. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels dropped dramatically in Wuhan, China and other regions as transportation, industry, and other activities were halted. The assignment discusses how working from home and online education adopted during the pandemic could help sustain lower pollution levels after restrictions are lifted, but pollution would still likely rise without continuing some practices. It concludes that minimizing post-lockdown increases in environmental pollution is achievable if lessons from the temporary reductions are applied.

Uploaded by

Kishan Patel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Assignment 2:

Effects of COVID-19 on Pollution

Kishan Patel

ECE 7000: Renewable Energy Policy

Due: 06/15/2020
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 turning into a global pandemic and crisis, could there

be anything beneficial from this? An article from the journal, Science of the Total Environment

suggests that this crisis may be “a blessing in disguise” for the environment. With most regions

of the world enforcing a variant of lockdowns, major pollution sources have been halted

resulting in a reduction of environmental pollution on a global level. This is discussed in an

article titled, “COVID-19 pandemic and environmental pollution: A blessing in disguise?” by

authors from Jiangsu University, China.

As a result of lockdown, the transportation and mobility sector was essentially halted.

From February 23, 2020 to April 5, 2020, transportation was reduced by at least 50% in the

United States, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (Muhammad et al.).

Similarly there was a decrease in grocery and pharmacy, retail and recreation, and work for all of

these countries (Muhammad et al.). Due to these limitations in social and economic activities,

pollution is reduced.

The authors at Jiangsu University assessed pollution during COVID-19 using NO2

(nitrogen dioxide), a pollutant from the combustion of fossil fuels. Looking closely at Wuhan,

China there is a dramatic decrease in NO2 density decreasing from 500 mol/m2 in February

2019 to less than 125 mol/m2 in February of 2020 (Muhammad et al.). There are similar results

in the northeastern region of the United States as well, just not as large as China.

Another article found in the same journal titled, “Does lockdown reduce air pollution?

Evidence from 44 cities in northern China,” also analyzes the effects of the lockdown and how it

is reducing air pollution in northern China which include the cities of Beijing and Wuhan. This

study went in depth on the air quality index and five pollutants, both before and after the

lockdown. The study found that after the lockdown the air quality index was improved by 7.8%
and that the five air pollutants (SO2, PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and CO) were reduced by 6.75%, 5.93%,

13.66%, 24.67%, and 4.58% respectively on average throughout the 44 cities in northern China

(Bao and Zhang).

With such a pandemic, the patterns of life for everyone have changed drastically. There

has been a huge increase in people staying home and traveling less. In the United States, many

people are conducting work or school from home which eliminates transportation and utilities at

places such as office buildings and schools which in return decreases environmental pollution.

As seen in the articles, China had a large decrease in pollution. Similarly in the United States if

our current patterns of life remain constant, we should see similar results.

The big question I think about is, what will happen after the lockdowns and restrictions

are lifted? Will everything be the way it was prior to the pandemic or will people adopt certain

habits they have been practicing during lockdown? From a personal point of view, many of the

things implemented during the pandemic are sustainable. For example, as large corporations are

having most employees work from home, pollution from transportation and utilities is reduced

significantly. Corporations are learning that having their employees work from home is feasible

which would save the corporation money and help with environmental pollution. With this, it is

possible to see more jobs transitioning to a telework setting. The same goes for education. With

many college course offered online, this could be a new trend as students get accustomed to

learning from their homes. Although, it is evident that once the lockdowns and restrictions are

lifted, pollution will rise due to social and economical activities. However, we as a world can

minimize these effects of environmental pollution by keeping some practices from the lockdown

period. If environmental pollution decreased significantly in the short periods of lockdown, the

possibility of decreasing pollution after such restrictions are lifted is certainly achievable.
Works Cited

Bao, Rui, and Acheng Zhang. “Does Lockdown Reduce Air Pollution? Evidence from 44 Cities

in Northern China.” Science of The Total Environment, vol. 731, 29 Apr. 2020, p. 139052.,

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139052.

Muhammad, Sulaman, et al. “COVID-19 Pandemic and Environmental Pollution: A Blessing in

Disguise?” Science of The Total Environment, vol. 728, 17 Apr. 2020, p. 138820.,

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138820.

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