Is the Coronavirus decreasing global air pollution?

It’s hard to find a silver lining to a global pandemic, but this just might be one.

If you weren’t concerned by the spread of COVID-19 earlier this month, you sure are now. Having escalated from an epidemic to a pandemic seemingly overnight, the coronavirus now has government officials scrambling worldwide to contain the virus and to protect their respective citizens and economies. 

But while COVID-19 represents one of the greatest threats to humanity in the last decade, it would appear there is one significant beneficiary of this global hysteria. And that’s the globe itself. 

NASA recently published satellite images demonstrating an astronomical decrease in air pollution surrounding the two nations most affected by the virus, China and Italy. While the method behind China’s countrywide lockdown is a little questionable (if the tabloids are to be believed), the halting of its industrial productions and vehicle traffic has sent nitrogen dioxide levels plummeting over the last two months.

Satellite Images Reveal A Dramatic Drop In Pollution During The Coronavirus Quarantine #pollution #ItalyCoronavirus https://t.co/aBxuatx8Gg

— Bored Panda (@boredpanda) March 16, 2020

In fact, according to environmental economist Marshall Burke the reduction in nitrogen dioxide may have actually saved thousands of lives. In a strange twist of fate, Burke estimates that the lockdown in China has likely saved the lives of over 4,000 children under five and 73,000 adults over 70 to this point – a number that far eclipses the global death toll of COVID-19 (9000). 

So, there we have it, we don’t harp on about being sustainable and watching your carbon footprint for nothing. Air pollution currently exceeds drug abuse as a global cause of ‘premature death’ by a factor of 19, and startlingly malaria by a factor of 60. Keep washing your hands too though. 

While China is obviously the focus for studies such as these, what with it being the industrial capital of the world and all, Italy’s air is also becoming cleaner as its safety measures increase. A YouTube video uploaded by the European Space Agency (ESA) is perhaps the greatest piece of visual evidence out there to show people just how much cleaner the air is becoming with people in their homes.