An Unwelcome Experiment
By Albert B. Kelly
Spend any time at time at all thinking about this pandemic and you would be hard pressed to think of anything of value to emerge from it. But recently, I heard several news snippets about how the pandemic has impacted our environment some for the better. In a strange way, it should help confirm for those among us that have our doubts about just how much we humans impact the planet that we do have a significant impact and it’s often not good.
For the skeptical, it is a way to back into the idea that there may be things we can and should do to help Mother Nature heal and by extension, allow us to live in a healthier environment. At the start of the pandemic back in March and April, the attention was on how wildlife was starting to come back into metro areas that had long ago ceased to see any.
One report from Wired Magazine noted the fact that in San Francisco, coyotes were walking across an empty Golden Gate Bridge. Other news outlets had coyotes on Michigan Ave in Chicago- something that would never happen under normal circumstances. In Boulder, Colorado, the locals had to deal with mountain lions and closer to home there have been an increased number of bears spotted in the Garden State. Even the animals at our Cohanzick Zoo were less stressed with no visitors during lockdown.
But the impact of the pandemic on how wildlife engage with our most populated and developed areas is just one part of a larger story and not necessarily a surprising one since we’ve always suspected that wildlife and vegetation would do just fine without us.
But the other changes worth noting get right to the heart of the ongoing debate about whether or not we have an outsized impact on the planet up to and including global warming. Since the pandemic really took hold in late February and early March, scientists using satellites and sensors have been monitoring things such as pollution. What they found surprises me.
For example, nitrogen dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, which is mostly a byproduct of engines using fuels in our transportation systems and in a multitude of industrial uses, was reduced roughly 20% globally because much of daily living as we knew it came to a halt through shutdowns, closures and restrictions. Reductions were greatest in big cities for example a 60% decrease in Milan, Italy and a 45% decrease in New York City earlier in the year.
Anecdotally, many people with asthma and other respiratory issues in those places reported fewer breathing problems from air pollution and smog. Beyond that, scientists were seeing measurable changes in other ways. Recently, one reporter on NPR discussed how he could see the Himalayan Mountains from Delhi in India which, at over 400 miles away, is apparently very rare under normal circumstances.
Beyond being able to see the Himalayas at such distances, the reporter went on to explain that less soot and pollution means a brighter snowpack which means that the snow is able to reflect more sunlight which impacts melting and whole series of feedbacks that mean the difference between having water and not having water for millions of people in that region. Multiply that the world over and you get the point.
But why should that matter to us here in the Garden State? At first glance, it probably doesn’t, but thinking about these things whether locally or globally should serve to remind us that what we do combines with whatever everyone else does and that it collectively has an impact whether for good or bad.
When it comes to the atmosphere and the environment, these pandemic shutdowns are a type of natural experiment as unwelcome and unwanted as it is that we would never have been able to conduct otherwise. What it has to teach us is that the environment and atmosphere can heal if we make the policy changes needed to reduce all sorts of emissions and waste.
The wrong lesson from this unwelcome experiment is to think that things will always bounce back. There is a tipping point- some think we’ve already reached it and others think we soon will. The good news- if you can call it good news- is that there appears to be some resiliency left in our environment and atmosphere but the warning is that we’re running out of time and opportunities.