Earth Day 2020 地球日

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Image Credit: Secretserendipity.com

After the idea of creating a day for the Earth was first proposed to the UN, environmental advocates in the U.S. organized the first large scale event in 1970 and decided to call it "Earth Day." From then on, it has been an annual event celebrated on April 22nd.

This year, as the pandemic is ravaging across the globe affecting almost everyone, let us take a second to look at how it is affecting our Earth.

Seismic Activity 

Seismic noise are persistent vibrations in the ground that can result from human activity as well as other factors. The vibrations are usually picked up by machines known as seismometers. According to Thomas Lecocq, a seismologist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, seismic noise resulting from human activities has fallen by about a third in the city. Scientists in California and the U.K. have also noticed similar trends.

Air Pollution

Image Credit: DNA India

Many places around the globe have also reported a significant decrease in air pollution, which is attributed to reduction in industrial activity and vehicular traffic. Data collected by the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite shows that there have been dramatic falls in nitrogen dioxide concentrations above some European cities, coinciding with quarantine measures.

For instance, scientists from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute saw drops in nitrogen dioxide of around 45 percent in Madrid, Milan and Rome between March 13 to April 13, 2020 compared to the same period last year. During the same time, Paris saw dramatic falls of 54 percent.

India has also seen dramatic falls in air pollution. Data from NASA's Terra satellite shows that levels of aerosols—tiny solid particles or liquid droplets in the air that come from both man-made and natural sources—in parts of northern India dropped to a 20-year low shortly after the country's lockdown was introduced.

Residents living in the city of Jalandhar in the northern state of Punjab have reported being able to see parts of the Himalayas from more than 100 miles away. These peaks have not been seen from this area of the country for decades.

Greenhouse Gases Emission

Blue sky

An analysis by Lauri Myllyvirta—an expert from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air—found that the crisis temporarily reduced carbon dioxide emissions in China by 25 percent, with emission levels yet to return to normal more than two months after the country imposed its lockdown.

Experts at Carbon Brief have estimated that the pandemic could trigger the largest ever annual fall in carbon dioxide emissions in 2020. The publication predicts that there could be CO2 reductions of around 5.5 percent in 2020 compared to 2019—larger than those seen during any previous economic crisis or war.

In Italy, Venice canals have cleared up. As there is a lockdown in the country, boating is banned and there are no tourists around. Swans, dolphins, and fishes are making their way to the waters of Venice. The water is blue and clear. The apparent cleanliness of the water is not just attributed to a lack of pollution but also to the absence of motorized boats, which normally churns up the muddy canal floor.

We should take the opportunity of this lockdown to reflect and see how we can be more organized and live in harmony with nature.