This project, prepared by team vision has not just shown the pleasing positive aspects of the pandemic on local to global environment sector. But, the main motive of this project has been to show the dark side of the outbreak on environment as well. The project addresses this challenge by showing both the present environmental condition and the long term effect, this pandemic has to bring on the planet.
The sole motivation for choosing this project was that, this challenge seemed to be a bigger problem the world has to face than any other challenges listed on the program, after the outbreak ends. Various internet sources and nature conservancy agents have been the resources for development of this project. Since, we have only tried providing the problems regarding the outbreak and assumed solutions, none of coding section has been done till now. Thus, no coding tools has been used for development of this project.
Finding the problems, our environment has to face, had been a really easy job. But, the real problems we faced was to think and search for solutions regarding those problems.
The sole motive of the documentation was to provide an idea as a solution and to clear the misconception that, these quarantines is a good thing for environment with no negative aspects. So, we have not done the coding section of the project, which is why, showing demo will not be possible.
URL:
Ozone layer recovery data / NASA -https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Ozone
History of COVID-19 / Wikipedia -https://www.wikipedia.org/
One health approach / WHO -https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/one-health
Impact of ecosystem / DW news (Berlin) -
Documentation part:
Impact of Pandemic on global environment
Bishal Bhatt
Joseph Thapa
Niru Dhaubanjar
Pragya Shrestha
Sushil Sharma
Suyan Shrestha
A Team Vision Presentation
History
COVID-19 , officially named as Sars-Cov-2 first emerged in Wuhan City of China in December 2019 , resulting a global pandemic in time-being. As for the current records till May 30, 2020, over 5.95 million cases have been reported across 188 countries around the globe, resulting more than 365,000 deaths. Among these reported cases, 2.5 million people have recovered successfully. This outbreak has resulted significant impacts on not only mankind, but also global environment as well as the climate of Earth.
The sole motive of this document is to highlight the impact of COVID-19 on environment from local to global levels.
Impact of COVID-19 on environment
The impact of COVID -19 on mankind and the economic fallout is undeniably harsh. But, this has also resulted in prosperity of environment. The carbon and nitrogen oxides emissions have been reduced by sky-high percentage since the time COVID-19 appeared, resulting drastic declinations in Air Pollution. This pandemic has resulted in global lockdown resulting cover for all those hindrances towards environmental prosperity and has obviously declined the environmental degradation caused by human activities. The paragraphs below briefly describe about the environmental factors that have been harsh affected, for good or bad, since the corona-outbreak.
Air and Marine
As mentioned earlier, this outbreak has resulted a big drop in air pollution. Complete shutdowns of factories and power plants have caused the least amount of harmful gas pollutants to be released in the atmosphere of Earth. Also, Global lockdown has also declined the usage of fossil fuels. Thus, the deforestation rates have also decreased significantly, purifying the atmosphere of Earth.
Similar to drop in air pollution, water pollution has also declined significantly since the pandemic occurred. Heavy tight quarantines, on a worldwide scale, has tended the boat traffic to almost zero scale. The global factory shutdowns have completely stopped all the factory wastages that once used to be dumped towards marine directly.
Deforestation and Wildlife
Anyone may easily agree on the fact that, lesser usage of fossil fuels, gives lesser deforestation. But unknown to the people, is the fact that, this assumption might just prove wrong. The deforestation and poacher might have just increased more than it was before the worldwide quarantines. The rangers and all members are now no longer able to protect the forests freely, like they were able to. This might have just given the ones, who violate environmental diplomacy policies, a cover to commit all illegal activities like deforestation and poachery. So, this factor might not be all positive, like it was supposed to be.
Matt Brown – a conservationist of Nature Conservancy said that, “When people won’t have any source of income, the poaching will go up for high value products like ivory.” Such cases have already made an appearance in South Africa in small scales.
Greenhouse effect
The corona outbreak has slashed down most of the greenhouse emission. Air quality levels have significantly improved. This is mostly because of reduction of factory and road-traffic emissions of greenhouse gases. Though the outbreak has inflicted economic and social shocks on global production, the greenhouse emissions have surely reduced in a significant percentage.
Also, a very important fact in favor of COVID’s effect on environment is:
In 2017, NASA officially announced that the ozone layer has been weakest since 1998 because of warm stratospheric conditions. It was expected to recover around 2070 especially in the artic region. But, due to the pollution control over the outbreak-period, the ozone layer is said to be healing on its own gradually.
Not all environmental consequences of the crisis are positive
As long as this outbreak continues, it is obvious that the economic activities will stay low, but environmental condition is also a lot better. However, it would be very short-sighted to assume that this environment is durable and will continue to be the same even after the end of outbreak. The global environment will probably revert to its older self once, the older Earth picks up its pace.
It is common to see at the positive side of the crisis on environment blindly. But, still, there are literally lots of negative impacts following the outbreak. For example,
Volumes of unrecyclable wastages have risen.
With sharp declines in cargo-transportation services, the condition food transportation across various parts of world has become harsh.
Because of improper handling of organic wastages during the pandemic, the decaying of such wastages is bound to produce high levels of methane (a greenhouse gas).
A High-level risk for Ecology
For all the time, we have just been looking at the bright side on the environment. With this outbreak going on, we almost forgot the unbelievable fires burning few months back, in Australia, in Brazil as well as in California. Well, it’s normal not to think about all this climate change and stuff in the midst of such an outbreak, right? But, the truth is that, we are so much concerned about the present crisis that we are no longer thinking properly about the future or even trying to be ready for upcoming crises.
Also, the stoppage of ecotourism activity has left natural ecosystems at risk of illegal harvesting and encroachment.
What we need to be prepared for?
For years, there has been a lot of big environmental problems, and big names and governments have come to alliances to solve these problems. Many large scale conferences and events have been held, but, despite all the efforts, protocols and funds, the overall state of our global environment has only worsened with time.
So, when the nature has given us a chance to correct our mistakes, a revolution for collaboration of action is a must. A new drive for cooperation between NGO and CEO leaders to bind business, communities and organizations is needed. The sole motive of this collaboration must be to meet every “earth” target alongside “economic” targets.
Today, the battle to defend biodiversity has become crucial, because fighting the COVID-19 is not only a battle to preserve the humanity, but also the survival of the entire planet. What we are facing today is the irreparable loss of entire ecosystems, a global climate crisis that threatens us all, and the development of infectious diseases with devastating consequences.
The One Heath Approach promoted by World Health Organization is very crucial to prevent such pandemics in the future. This project aims to design and implement programs and policies in synergy between different sectors to achieve better results in public health. Such approach will come in handy to a great extent in time of need. So, similar approaches must be legalized between the cooperation of different nature conservancy organizations.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we must remember that we’ve never a better chance to make a greener world. This pandemic has delivered us some unusual environmental benefits. Thinking that, this outbreak is a magic healing spell on the Earth that would make every natural problem go vanish for generations, is nothing but a mere delusion. So the question we need to keep our focus on is, if we can really capitalize on this moment and make the planet a better and a quieter place or not?