Delhi residents saw the Himalayas again in April and May of 2020 as particulate matter in the Indo-Gangetic Plain reached a 20-year low.
Evidence from ground monitors and satellites shows widespread drops in lung-damaging nitrogen dioxide: 20-40% over cities in China, Europe, and the U.S. Particulate matter also dropped in many cities during the lockdown.
The coronavirus crisis, however, has brought the clean air stakes into sharp relief. The slow-down has provided a fleeting glimpse of a clean air future.
To be clear: the COVID lockdown has not “solved” the air-quality problem. Sharp drops in movement, manufacturing, and (in some places) electricity needs visibly cleared the air, but they neither removed all pollution nor achieved these changes at anything like a reasonable cost. Ground-level ozone pollution in the U.S., for example, remained high during the lockdown, in part due to the underlying chemistry of how it is formed, but also because trucks, power plants, refineries, and other major contributors were still running. And some of the underlying structural drivers of air pollution — energy poverty, cutting corners on emission controls, and weak regulations and enforcement — appear to be growing stronger as economies reopen.
The coronavirus pandemic has allowed a glimpse of a clean air future, at a tragic physical and economic cost to millions of people. The hope is for a clean air future achieved without this painful cost. The solutions exist. Now is the time to start working together to achieve them.
Sources:
- https://youtu.be/mHW_Sty6jRA
- https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/time-to-focus-on-reviving-delhis-economy-says-cm/article32207718.ece
- https://www.wri.org/news/distance-clean-air-post-covid-19
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/22/world/air-pollution-reduction-cities-coronavirus-intl-hnk/index.html
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