Air pollution was one of the most devastating forms of damage to the environment. Figures of the United Nation’s World Health Organization (UN WHO) suggest that air pollution kills about seven million people every year worldwide. It is also reported that 9 in 10 persons breathe air exceeding WHO’s guidelines with significant pollution content.
Now since the detection of the first case of COVID-19 disease in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019, the novel coronavirus has evolved into a global pandemic and it continues to tear around the world, it has a tangled relationship with the Air Pollution. Earlier, the Air Pollution has found to intensified the Pandemic, but the pandemic has temporarily cleaned the skies, hence lessen the air pollution.
A study by Xiao Wu et al from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Heath which is still undergoing peer review for publication, found that the tiny pollutant particles known as PM2.5, breathed over many years, sharply raise the chances of dying from the virus. Those countries that averaged just one microgram per cubic meter more PM2.5 in the air had a COVID-19 death rate that was 15 percent higher.
This comes about as the fine particles penetrate deep into the body and trigger hypertension, heart disease, breathing difficulties, and diabetes. The particles impair the immune system and cause inflammation of the lungs and respiratory tract, which increases the risk of both COVID-19 and serious symptoms.
But though in the past pollution continues to be harmful today, cleaner air experiences from extensive shutdowns can offer lessons for the kind of world we want to construct after the pandemic.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASIR KACHROO, NURPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
The pollution levels have fallen from Chinese Hubei Province to industrial northern Italy and elsewhere, while lockdowns to prevent the viral spread have shut down companies and imprisoned thousands of people in their homes. Lauri Myllyvirta, senior analytic at Helsinki’s Energy and Clean Air Research Center, says in an email, that air pollution is amongst the worst in the world and “many report to see the Himalayas for the first time from where they live.”
India hurriedly imposed shutdowns, leaving hundreds of thousands of migrant workers without homes or employment, have been catastrophic. However, the quantity of PM2.5 and the hazardous pollutant nitrogen dioxide decreased by more than 70 percent in Delhi, where air usually squalls.
The dips will certainly only be transitory. Myllyvirta said it involves shifts to clean energy and transport, “not to compel people to remain home at dramatic economic costs.” In order to get healthier air for the longer period. However, the more clear epidemic skies illustrate how quickly we can reduce the pollution by reducing our fossil fuel consumption.
The Global reaction on the Covid19 catastrophe has little impact on the continuous growth in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, the World Metrological Organization (WMO). Despite a substantial decrease this year in carbon emissions due to lockdowns that drastically curtailed transport and industry levels.
WMO data have shown that the overall increase in concentrations has only slowed considerably.
The details have been published in the yearly WMO Greenhouse Gas Newsletter. During the lockdowns, the environmental benefits were widely called for.
Proponents have stated economic development needed to pursue a sustainable, low-emission path after the pandemic. Despite requests for greener construction, business as normal appeared to be as a priority, regardless of the expense.
– by Amzar Zafri Alimi.