The year 2020 is considered to be a year of change. with the covid 19 outbreak, the entire world faced a life-changing phenomenon.it affected human life and the physical world in numerous ways, some good some bad.
Covid 19 first came to light in the year 2019 in December in China. It is reported to have emerged from the city of Wuhan China. A couple of weeks later, it was declared a global health crisis by the WHO (world health organization).it is an infectious respiratory tract disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 related to the SARS virus whose primary source can be bats, the definitive source is not confirmed yet.
By now everyone is familiar with what covid 19 is and what it can cause to your body.
It has a high human-to-human transmission capacity, it is caused by direct contact or by droplets produced on coughing, sneezing, and talking. As soon as scientists found out about the high transmit ability factor
, an immediate and strict lockdown was put into effect by the authorities. Various countries banned the incoming of international flights and even the interstate borders were closed to prohibit movement. This had various environmental implications.
Environmental effects
The lockdown had various environmental implications to account for, both positive and negative.
The worthwhile benefits
Due to stay-at-home orders, the industries, companies, and transportation has all been closed down resulting in lesser air pollution. And it is a well-known fact that the transportation industry is a major contributor towards GHG (Greenhouse gas) emission therefore, the pandemic has also helped in decreasing GHG emission.
The emission of NO2 important indicator for global economic activities and this has significantly decreased. Lesser NO2 has also resulted in lesser acid rain as NO2
reacts with O2 (oxygen) and H2O (water). Acid rain is known to be extremely harmful to forests.
Similarly, lower levels of water and noise pollution have also been recorded over the pandemic. Temporary closure of industries has contributed here too. In developing countries, such as Bangladesh, India, due to lack of proper waste disposal system, the industries dump their toxic waste straight into water bodies. For example; rivers in India, namely Ganga and Yamuna have attained new levels of sterility over the lockdown.
The decrease in noise pollution has also come as a relief as it can cause harsh effects on physiological health, cardiovascular disorders, hypertension, and sleep shortness in humans.
Lesser tourists have also helped aid the restoration of tourist sites such as beaches, islands, national parks, mountains, desert, and mangroves
Undesirable effects
Since the outbreak of the covid 19 virus, we all have experienced and are still experiencing the use of PPE kits, that is, face masks, hand gloves, and other
equipment to protect ourselves from virus infections, hence the volume of medical waste has also increased tremendously, globally. This has the potential to cause environmental pollution, unpleasant odors, and aid in disease transmission. According to a report, facemasks and other plastic protective equipment are likely sources of microplastic fibers, which is a bad thing because microplastics can be carriers of contaminants.
An increase in the amount of medical waste had a variety of direct and indirect environmental effects. For one thing, due to lockdown and quarantine policies, there has been an increase in home deliveries and online shopping, increasing shipping packaging waste; additionally, waste recycling has been hauled for the time being due to covid19 . Resulting in a lot of waste lying around and we all know that waste is no friend to the environment.
How can we help?
Some might think that all the adverse effects are short-lived, but alas this isn’t the case. Without proper strategies and sustainability measures to curb the damage that is done, we would not be able to hand over healthy earth to our future generations. some effective measures can be:
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§ Mindful Industrialization:
Industries are a decisive component of economic growth and so is sustainability. Thus, this accounts for sustainable industrialization. It means, to use cleaner energy sources such as hydropower, geothermal energy, wind energy solar energy, etc., and restrict the use of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas this will also aid in the reduction of emission of GHG (greenhouse gas).
Another step that could be taken is allotting specific areas for industries as the waste product or by-product from one might be the raw material for the other. Also, these areas must have proper waste disposable systems.
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§ Greener ways of transportation:
nowadays everyone takes their vehicles to their work or school causing a lot of pollution bot noise and air so, it is advised to encourage the use of public transportation, ride bicycles, implement strategies like carpooling or even walking for short commutes. this is beneficial for both, our environment and our bodies. Another way is to increase the production of electric vehicles.
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§ Proper waste management:
authorities need to implement new and efficient techniques of was management to lessen industrial and municipal waste. The government should launch campaigns to increase the awareness of waste management and its benefits and promote strategies like, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
The pandemic has affected every human’s life and also the health of our mother earth. It has shown us a clear picture of the damage that we caused to the environment and what our home, the earth can be like if we took some mindful steps. COVID also taught us how to work together to exterminate the threats to mankind telling us that we can reap long-term benefits with the help of some coherent efforts.
Published By :- Shubham Agarwal
Edited By :- Khushi Thakur
