Nina’s Blog

Recently, I have been hearing a lot of environmental benefits from people quarantining and social distancing all over the world due to the COVID-19 virus. Some of these benefits include murky water becoming clear, less air pollution, marine creatures coming closer to the shore, turtles laying more eggs, and even in my town I can see more webworms falling from the trees. This is something that hasn’t been directly proven to be related to human actions, but it’s curious that they have almost disappeared in the last years, and are now much more noticeable than in the past.

I found an article titled “How the coronavirus crisis is helping improve the environment across the world,” written by Rashida Yosufzai. This article demonstrates the improvement of air quality around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The graphic that I included demonstrates the nitrogen dioxide levels in Wuhan, China in 2019 and 2020 during the Chinese New Year. It shows the increase of emissions during the Chinese New Year in 2019, but very low levels in 2020 due to people staying at home and not emitting any Nitrogen Dioxide.

The article continues to explain the benefits of people’s social distancing and quarantining. It explains that fewer people will die from COVID-19 than would die from air pollution in a normal year. The article does not support the spread of the virus, but the author wants to make it clear that humans are causing environmental harm and COVID-19 is providing even more evidence of this. 

Hopefully, this pandemic will bring more regulation and awareness of humans’ impact on the environment. There continues to be growing evidence of the environment improving with more and more people staying at home due to COVID-19. If more regulations soon were to be in place, now would be the time to implement them before businesses and people return to their daily life.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/how-the-coronavirus-crisis-is-helping-improve-the-environment-across-the-world

12 Replies to “Nina’s Blog”

  1. The blog takes a new point of view of looking at the environment benefits of COVID-19. However, the blog lacks “personal touch”. What does the environmental benefits of the COVID-19 have to do with you/your experience? At the end, be specific when supporting for “more regulations”. What kinds of regulations would have to be in place? Wearing face masks? Frequently staying at home? Overall, there is a lack of transition words (furthermore, additionally, oftentimes) which impends on the flow of the blog.

  2. Your blog was very good and I like how you included the positive effects of coronavirus and what the positives that it has on the environment. The article that you found was very interesting and it was cool to see how there is statistically less deaths from the coronavirus than there is from air pollution. Although the article you found had good information, it would have been better to add a little to the end about your personal feelings on this and what you agree and disagree with. Also, there is the question of what is going to happen when everyone is let out of quarantine, did you find any articles that help support and answer those types of questions?

  3. This blog post was very interesting to read about because I had heard and read about some similar things a week ago on social media. People were showing images of dolphins closer to shores and more fish in lakes that used to not have any. I believe with your point that measures to prevent further environmental damage should be placed following or amidst the coronavirus; however, since we live in a world where we prioritize the urgent things and push the rest away, I do not see this actually happening.

  4. I recently saw similar news about dolphins in the rivers of Venice after the virus. Nature is the common property of all living things on earth. As a result of human over occupation, many rivers have become places of waste water discharge, and some may have been filled with plastic. In your blog, I think you can add some ideas of your own.

  5. Hey Nina! I think it’s interesting to talk about, as others commented, what ‘good’ is coming out of this. I think by being forced to this extreme, of being isolated, we are being forced to also see the magnitude of effect we have on the environment. The graphic was also very effective in proving your point. I would like to hear more of your thoughts!

  6. I have read similar reports about this environmental rebound that appears to be happening right now. It’s saddening to think about the amount of damage humans are causing by occupying habitats and their pollution. I am curious though about what is having the most positive effect: is it coming from a decrease in transportation pollution or a decrease in human presence. Transportation has decreased from a lack of commuting and with shops closed there’s not many places for people to drive to. With most people staying inside, there has to be a heavier draw on electrical usage which, in most regions, is still powered by fossil fuels. Although fossil fuel combustion used in electricity generation is far more efficient than personal transportation engines, it makes me wonder if the trade off is enough to bring about the change we are observing. Is it possible that the lack of disturbance caused by people staying inside is enough for the ecosystem to rebound regardless of the pollution decrease?

  7. Your blog post is a very good summary about what has currently been happening in the environment due to COVID-19. I agree with you that hopefully people will see the changes in the environment and think about possible ways we can maintain and upkeep the environment. I loved the visual you used and how you explained it. It was a very good use of logos with the logic and type of facts you used to help persuade your audience into thinking that there have been recent changes in the environment while everyone is staying indoors. Good job!

  8. Nice find Nina! It is good to see how COVID-19 and other cases of Coronavirus affected the environment in a positive way. The graphs about the air pollution in Wuhan, China is very interesting because I can definitely see why it is a benefit to be quarantined and have social distancing. It just comes to show how humans can affect the environment in a major way — negatively or positively. Also, I love your idea of putting on regulations and other laws into action because we can see how this pandemic has caused people to wake up.

  9. I love your blog very much! I’ve heard this news before too. I think people could only know the serious of COVID-19, and they can’t realize the real problem. Just like you said, there are less people dead this year than dead because of the virus. I think it is because of the slowly death of nature can’t help people realize the true thing we’ve meet with now.

  10. I really liked how you shed light on the crisis currently happening in our world. Like you mentioned, the environment is benefitting from people staying indoors and many animals who’s populations were struggling are now rising. In China, the exotic animal trade has skyrocketed in the past years due to the open markets they have on the streets. Because of COVID-19, these markets have now closed and the demand for these animals has drastically decreased. And since the decrease in demand, lots of populations who were on their last lim, like the endangered pangolins, get a second chance.

  11. I thought this article was very interesting after taking a look at it, has a very good summary on the environmental outcomes of covid 19. There are many positive and negative outcomes of this,very interesting has two unrelated things having a relationship

  12. Hi Nina! Your article particularly appealed to me, and it’s a very interesting fact that people’s isolation from their homes causes a better environment. But this phenomenon was caused by the epidemic. Can we try to imagine that if there is no threat of an epidemic in the future, people will still stay home as long as they do now? I think the answer is, no. If I understand you correctly, as you mentioned at the end of the article, if there is a corresponding policy in place, then it should be implemented before people return to normal life.

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