COVID-19 gave the planet a break. Now's the time to keep up the momentum

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

You've seen the tweets or witnessed the changes firsthand. With COVID-19 lockdowns in place, skies over cities around the world were bluer. The notoriously dirty air in New Delhi was cleaner, and the canals in Venice were so clear you could see the marine life swimming through them.

The catchphrase "The Earth is healing, we are the virus," was immortalized as a meme.

The observations weren't just anecdotal. A May study found significant drops in daily global carbon dioxide emissions, with a peak decline of 17% in early April. But if the coronavirus pandemic is giving the Earth a breath of fresh air, it may only be temporary. As lockdown orders lift across the globe, experts have warned emissions will quickly rebound. As we resume everyday tasks, any environmental progress can be undone just as quickly as it arrived.

That is, unless policymakers, governments and other groups start working on the structural and societal changes needed to tackle climate change. That includes embracing flexible work-from-home schedules to reduce traffic, closing down streets to vehicles, encouraging the use of bicycles and increasing investments in clean energy.

"This is the right moment to make drastic changes," said Francisco Artigas, director of the Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute in New Jersey. "We have to start engineering ourselves out of the way we live, because it's just not sustainable."

As governments make investments to restart the economy, it's critical they think about promoting advancements like electric vehicles and renewable energy, which create jobs while helping the planet, adds climate scientist Corinne Le Quéré, a professor at the University of East Anglia. If they bail out car or airline industries, for example, they should do so under the condition that companies produce electric vehicles within a certain time frame.

https://www.cnet.com/features/covid-19-gave-the-planet-a-break-nows-the-time-to-keep-up-the-momentum/?ftag=CAD-04-10abi6g&bhid=24447454298893839703959737945916&mid=12950475&cid=534320049

[Thekaspervote]

1. It's been great to observe..not such a bad silver lining

[Hestia]

2. Detractors can no say we have no impact upon the environment. That's been a huge plus.

A huge minus is the build up of methane after well drillers walked away from NG wells in Texas and they are leaking, leaving the taxpayers on the hook for closing off the wells.