Environment Breathes a Bit Easier as Pandemic Momentarily Clears Roadways

There’s no arguing that the pandemic has greatly impacted human lives in a variety of ways, but the environment’s condition also needs to be prioritized. Last March, when quarantine began in many states, scientists saw a significant decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. After states were shut down, it limited the number of open businesses, driving, and other activities that could cause emissions. 

Junior and Green Team member Hope Kupczyk sees some actual benefits to the plague sweeping the globe. 

“Air pollution has definitely gone down a lot,” she said. “I believe scientists are calling it ‘anthropause,’ which is just a decline in traveling in our motorized vehicles, which is what causes a lot of the air pollution. Because there’s less of that, there’s also a lot less air pollution. Less travel plans and interstate travel means the levels of nitrogen dioxide have gone way down, which is going to help reduce global warming and climate change.”

Environmental studies and biology teacher John Reiland adds on to this idea, illustrating that there are very clear visible changes being made.

“You could go to the internet and find some incredible pictures,” he said. “I’ve shown my environmental class how much the smog and the air pollution has decreased. I saw one of the cities in China and it was amazing.”

The change isn’t just in the skyline either: numbers back it as well. According to NASA satellite data, there was a 30% drop in air pollution over the Northeast US in the month of March 2019. With the long term impact of Covid becoming more relevant as the pandemic progresses, Kupczyk hopes to see consumers follow the lifestyle changes made during quarantine.

“It has set a very good example, because for years people have been saying that we need to decrease the amount that we’re traveling and be more aware of our impact on the environment,” she said. 

Kupczyk mentions that there’s a significant difference in air pollution, and that with the visible changes in such a short time frame, it sets a good example of beneficial changes that could happen if people did less traveling. She believes a huge impact could be made and also acknowledges how certain parts of the ecosystem become affected by the pandemic.

“Covid has had positive and negative effects on the environment and there’s a lot of cultures out there who are using Covid as a cover to increase the levels of pollution,” she said. “But at the same time, fish prices and demand for fish have gone way down, so the number of fish in our waters have increased a lot.”

The amount of pollution in the air in pollution-heavy cities was visibly less and other sectors of the ecosystem are being improved, but there are new challenges that the lockdown brings.

“We are producing a lot more garbage and we’re doing more take-out now,” Reiland said. “I just got done spraying the tables with these chemicals and I’m not saying we shouldn’t be doing it, but there has to be an environmental impact.”

In past years, individuals put forth a larger effort to help the environment by doing simple things such as switching to a reusable grocery bag or a reusable coffee cup. However, with more sanitary precautions being taken, this is no longer widely practiced. In addition, personal protective equipment, which has to be disposed of, is being used in unprecedented quantities. 

Kathy Hutter, the recycling program manager at Winnebago County Solid Waste, reinforces this idea while mentioning that there is only a slight increase in residential waste tonnages.

“There are a number of factors that could be contributing to this increase in household waste, so we cannot link it directly to single-use masks, plastics, gloves, etc,” she said.  “It could be from people spending more time at home and creating more trash because they are cleaning out closets, garages, and basements. It could be from the initial panic shopping that people did when the pandemic started, which comes with additional packaging and potential waste of unused portions.”

According to Hutter, medical waste like masks and gloves as garbage are a bigger problem than what might be expected.

“These items are unwanted in the recycling mix because they are not recyclable and they may also be contaminated with disease pathogens,” Hutter explained. “Some residual material that does get entangled with ‘good’ recyclable materials are bailed with the recyclables, and are considered to be contaminants by buyers of those materials.” 

That being said, Kupczyk believes that there are different things that can be done to help support the environment now with the increase of medical waste.

“It would really help if we had garbage cans in more places that are more common for people to be walking around or just hanging out outside,” she said. “Just spreading more awareness because people don’t really care and they don’t really know that, yeah, it’s not just one piece of litter. They may think they just threw this one wrapper on the ground, but if everybody throws a wrapper on the ground, that’s a lot of garbage.”

Nevertheless, there remains more to work on, and Reiland admits that the pandemic has created new opportunities for the social and personal environment as well. 

“People are getting out and about, and I think that’s great,” he said. “There’s a quote from Aldo Leopold, a conservationist and ecologist who’s from Wisconsin, who said that ‘you can only appreciate things that you can see, feel, and touch.’ Well, if people get out and see stuff that you know they’re going to want to appreciate it more.”

By Tessa Whitcomb

Oshkosh West Index Volume 117 Issue I

October 2nd, 2020