As countries around the world have gone on lockdown and enforced stay-at-home orders, less people are driving on roads, and companies are scaling down on production. This temporary shutdown has caused carbon emissions around the world to decrease, polluted waters to clear, wildlife to return to former habitats, and oil prices to plummet.
The 50th anniversary of Earth Day happened this week, and according to Oliver Milman of The Guardian, “environmentalists could only dream of such a scenario” for the celebration of the green movement. Pictures have been going viral across the internet, featured in a CNBC article, of clear skies in New Delhi (below), Los Angeles, and Paris and clear waters in Venice for the first time in decades.
The decreased emissions are being hailed as an enormous positive during the misery of social distancing and the coronavirus. As Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico stated in an article from The Hill, social distancing has shown “how much human activity impacts our environment” and that people really do “have the potential to improve the environment by changing our behavior.”
How can someone be sure that this progress will last? Well, as of right now, it won’t. Emma Newburger of CNBC warns that “levels will rebound once global restrictions lift.” During the coronavirus outbreak, the Trump administration has been taking steps to “roll back environmental regulations established to combat pollution and climate change,” according to Patrice Taddonio’s article from PBS Frontline. The EPA has been lowering emissions standards for auto companies to reduce strain during these harder economic times, which would in turn lower costs of vehicle production (Taddonio). Also, President Trump is trying to hand out stimulus money to bail out the oil and gas industry (Milman).
In addition, researchers this week found that the Arctic is still likely to be free of summer sea ice before 2050 and the first 3 months of 2020 were the second warmest ever (Milman). The policies fighting coronavirus, while helping the environment, are not enough to come even close to reversing climate change.
Many critics denounce the harsh impact of stay-at-home orders and national lockdowns on the economy. The U.S. unemployment rate has spiked, and these critics are lashing out at climate activists who are celebrating the cleaner air in the face of economic crisis. For example, an article in the New York Post criticizes Greta Thunberg, Joaquin Phoenix, and other climate activists in their desires to “slash emissions by crippling our economies in an uncertain bid to dial down Earth’s temperature.”
Certainly, the economic impact of slowing the spread of coronavirus can be felt all over the globe as businesses shut down, cut pay, and lay off employees. However, the message going forward in the fight against global warming must be to emphasize that environmental change does not have to correspond with economic destruction. An environmental law expert at Columbia, Michael Gerrard asks in the Guardian article that Americans consider “do we have a green recovery, do we seize the opportunity to create jobs in renewable energy and in making coastlines more resilient to climate change?”
Coronavirus has offered the world several eye-opening experiences. The pandemic exacerbates “inequalities for marginalized communities that have existed for far too long,” according to Representative Deb Haaland. It has also shown the world how unprepared we are for massive pandemics, and how governments can either handle the pandemic well or let it run rampant. But the thing we didn’t expect is seeing how much people really do impact the environment through carbon emissions.
Renewable energy has the power to create new industries and address economic inequality while reducing carbon emissions and climate change (Haaland). It can stabilize the economy, which can be severely affected by declining oil and coal. Right now, the coronavirus has dropped the price of a barrel of crude oil to minus-$40 (Milman). Clean energy can replace fossil fuels without hurting the economy and increasing global warming even more.
Going forward, the government must focus on providing more money to renewable energy instead of attempting to bail out the fossil fuel industry. Hopefully the coronavirus can serve as a wake-up call in many areas, but especially for environmental policy. If society decide to return to the pre-coronavirus world without committing to cut down emissions, people may not get a second chance to see the clear air and water we’re experiencing now.