by Reade Fenner ’20

COVID-19 has substantially altered our world by affecting the lives of millions. Businesses have shut down and people are staying home to avoid contracting or spreading the virus. However, among the many negative impacts of this pandemic, certain environmental positives provide a ray of hope. 

As non-essential businesses have closed due to this global crisis, there are fewer cars on the road, airplanes in the air, and factories burning fossil fuels to pollute the air. All over the world, cities are noticing cleaner air because of the decreasing amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. These cities include Delhi, London, Los Angeles, Milan, Mumbai, New York City, São Paulo, Seoul, Wuhan, and Rome. 

China, specifically, has noticed a great change in its air quality. This has significantly helped not only China’s air quality, but the world’s, as China as a country is the largest polluter in the world. As China uses less fossil fuels, its citizens  see clearer skies. 

San Francisco, which is known to be a beautiful but smog-filled city, has also seen an increase in air quality. Only two weeks after establishing a shelter-in-place order, the Air Quality Index reached single digits, which is deemed excellent. This is not only due to the rain that has allowed the air to clear, but the significant decrease of cars on the road emitting carbon dioxide. 

Better air quality is not the only environmental positive of COVID-19. Venice, Italy, a historic city where citizens rely on canals for transportation, has seen the impacts as well. Italy has been severely affected by coronavirus, causing the country to shut down. This has significantly decreased the use of Venice’s canals, allowing the water to appear crystal clear. On a busy day prior to the pandemic, the sediment on the bottom of the canals would be picked up and tossed around by the boats and gondolas traveling through. However, the sediment can now remain on the bottom, making wildlife such as fish and swans visible through the transparent water. 

Many are aware that the origin of COVID-19 is connected to the wildlife meat trade in China. In response to this, China decided to ban the consumption of wild animals in late February. Although this ban is only temporary, many environmentalists are calling for it to be made permanent. Limiting the consumption of wild animals in China will have an immense impact on the preservation of wildlife throughout the world, as it can protect them from being hunted and traded. 

The city of Shenzhen, however, has decided to expand this ban. They banned not only the consumption of wild animals, but cats and dogs as well. This new law was put into effect on May 1, and although eating dogs and cats is no longer common in China, it will still have a major impact. Approximately 10 million dogs and 4 million cats are killed in China each year, so banning the consumption of these animals in a major city such as Shenzhan will be significant.

Although these environmental benefits provide a silver lining to this horrifying pandemic, they will not last. When businesses and transportation reopen, air pollution will return and Venice’s canals will become cloudy again. China’s ban on the consumption of wild animals is only temporary to help with the effects of the outbreak. However, these temporary impacts all show that we are able to make a change. The fact that so many environmental positives have emerged in such a short period of time displays that humans can reverse the harm we have inflicted on this planet.