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Another land
Almost as soon as the coronavirus pandemic began, experts began to notice that the global blockade appeared to have caused a sharp drop in global carbon emissions.
The idea spawned both memes about humanity’s destruction of the planet and well-meaning visions of a greener future. Now, NASA scientists have found that overall the blockade has led to a 20% global reduction in nitrogen dioxide emissions since February, according to a press release, a change that left them in shock.
“In a way, I was surprised at what fell,” project leader and NASA researcher Christoph Keller said in the release. “Many countries have already done a great job of lowering their nitrogen dioxide concentrations over the past few decades thanks to clean air regulations, but what our results clearly show is that there is still a significant, behavior-driven contribution. human”.
Fortune Telling
The problem with comparing air pollution levels before and after the lockdown is that the numbers typically vary over time. So NASA scientists needed to develop a model that could accurately predict what global emissions of nitrogen dioxide – an air pollutant linked to transportation and industrial activity – would have been if the pandemic never happened.
They found that most cities experienced a drop in nitrogen dioxide emissions between 20 and 50% compared to the “business as usual” model, with Milan, Italy, experiencing an astonishing 60% reduction.
“We all knew the blockages would impact air quality,” Keller said in the statement. “It was also soon clear that it would be difficult to quantify how much of that change is related to blocking measures, relative to general seasonality or pollution variability.”
READ MORE: NASA’s model reveals how much COVID-related pollution levels have deviated from the norm [NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center]
More information on emissions: Study: Pandemic caused a 17% drop in global carbon emissions
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