Earth That Returns To 'Breathing' During The Corona Pandemic

Ilustrasi bumi (Image by skeeze from Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The corona virus pandemic (SARS-Cov-2), also known as COVID-19, has clearly alarmed the inhabitants of the earth. Many countries in the world prohibit their citizens from doing their activities outside the home, in order to reduce the number of transmission of this disease virus.

Along with this policy, unexpectedly has a significant impact in reducing air pollution on Earth. In fact, Planet Earth is breathing again with reduced human activity in recent weeks.

The corona pandemic has indirectly changed the way people view and talk about climate change on a large scale. Although on the other hand, corona does have a bad effect on the global economy.

"In the midst of this fast-moving global pandemic, it is only natural that we should also think about other major threats. But global climate change seems to be helping us prepare for tomorrow, "said Peter Gleick, climate scientist and founder of the Pacific Institute in Berkeley, California.

Decrease in pollution levels in China (Sentinel-5P satellite image processed by Descartes Labs)

Based on his observations over the past two months, both China and Italy have shown a decrease in human activity which often causes pollution. Industrial factories and mass transportation have temporarily stopped operating because they are considered a medium for transmitting COVID-19.

This causes the natural conditions of the planet we live on to be able to 'breathe' again. How the water quality in Venice's canals looks clear again, without any boat traffic passing by.

The expression of how Planet Earth breathes can be seen from the scientific project of a pair of data scientists from the Netherlands, Nadieh Bremer and Shirley Wu, in 2017. Both of them managed to juggle data on a certain time scale in digital visualization, based on satellite projections belonging to the United States (US) which measures the level of vegetative health on earth.

The results are surprising, how this digital map shows the level of greenness on earth during the last four seasons. This visual animation called 'Breathing Earth' gives the impression of how the earth is breathing.

This kind of situation may be a separate projection from the earth, which is breathing again during the COVID-19 pandemic. Satellite images from a number of countries also show the same thing, how the level of pollution on earth has decreased quite drastically.

It could be that in the future, this clean air is able to save more than 73,000 lives living on earth today. This figure will certainly exceed the number of deaths caused by the corona virus.

"Given the overwhelming amount of evidence that breathing dirty air contributes greatly to premature death, the natural question arises - which must be admittedly bizarre - whether the lives saved from reducing pollution are due to interference from COVID-19 itself," said the economist. environmental resource from Stanford University, Marshall Burke.

In fact, that's not really that surprising, because based on long-known research, air pollution is able to lower global life expectancy and cut three years of human survival.

This is what is often expressed by climate researchers, the threat of 'Global Warming'. There is even a skeptical view of how this pandemic inadvertently offers a solution in dealing with the climate change crisis.

"Pandemics are rapid and highlight our ability or our inability to respond to pressing threats. But like a pandemic, climate change can be planned in advance, if politicians heed the alarm bells of scientists," he continued.

Fluctuation of nitrogen dioxide emissions across #Europe from 1 Jan until 11 Mar 2020, using a 10-day moving average & data from CopernicusEU # Sentinel5P. The decline in NO2 emissions over the #PoValley 🇮🇹 is particularly evident.https: //t.co/MkPuG4IcOi pic.twitter.com/LcNH1QsmaB

- ESA EarthObservation (@ESA_EO) March 13, 2020

Launching a report from Science Alert, showing the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite image of a large reduction in air pollution, especially nitrogen dioxide, an exhaust gas that comes from industrial and transportation activities. This happens along with the reduction in human activity outside the home.

"While there may be slight variations in the data due to cloud cover and changes in weather, we firmly believe that the reduction in emissions that we can see coincides with Isolation in Italy leading to less industrial traffic and activity," said Claus Zehner, mission manager for ESA Copernicus. Sentinel-5P.

For now, there is no direct study regarding climate change that has occurred due to COVID-19. However, also ideally, of course, no one wants to die from the corona virus or air pollution, because both are both harmful.