Cities which were once densely populated with busy workers and shrouded in mists and odours of petrol and gasoline are now vacant and devoid of any life. No cars drive down roads and no light leave the shops anymore. Very few dare to roam around this ghost town and those who do can barely be recognised under the masks covering their faces. All this has happened due to a single disease: Covid-19.
With all recreational areas such as cinemas and cafes shut down, as well as every school, office and other workplace closed there is very little reason for anyone to leave their houses. And the fact that the coronavirus has become a deadly disease does not encourage anyone to do so either. Clearly this has reduced travel and use of public transport- a national defence system against this terrifying virus.
As there are less cars on roads, the air quality has improved immensely. The coronavirus itself has reduced the amount of CO2 emissions by a quarter. A disease has done what us humans could not do in around 3 months whilst we have had years to do so and yet we could not achieve this. This is obviously assisting with a problem which everyone seems to have forgotten about: global warming. There is clear evidence of this helping our environment- just breathing in the air whilst on a short walk can show how much cleaner and fresher it is.
This must show that Covid-19 is positively affecting our environment, right? Yes, but scientists say this will not last for very long. Due to our hedonist nature, once this crisis is over and all restrictions are relinquished, we will revert to releasing as much or even more emissions. These emissions will most likely sky-rocket as we will finally be able to visit all the places we love which we hadn’t been able to experience in many months. But if the coronavirus could reduce these emissions in a matter of months, shouldn’t we try to do the same? Aren’t we better than one small disease? We must try to keep this sustainable behaviour up even after this long quarantine is over.
Aishi Srivastava
