Air Pollution

As coronavirus quickly spreads around the world, the virus is forcing people to stay put. People aren’t driving or flying, leading to a massive reduction in air pollution, most notably in China, but also in Italy, the U.S. and other hard-hit areas that have implemented directives to stay home.» Subscribe…

Pedestrians wearing protective masks cross a road in front of an electronic stock board displaying ... the Nikkei 225 Stock Average outside a securities firm in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, March 2, 2020. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg © 2020 Bloomberg Finance LP The coronavirus lockdown hasn’t just slowed the march of…

This story originally appeared in The Guardian and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.The coronavirus pandemic is shutting down industrial activity and temporarily slashing air pollution levels around the world, satellite imagery from the European Space Agency shows.One expert said the sudden shift represented the “largest-scale experiment ever,” in…

Science & Tech COVID-19 Lockdowns Cause Drastic Dip in Air Pollution While it’s difficult to find silver linings to the COVID-19 lockdowns that have been instituted across the globe, there is one upside that’s so pronounced we can see it clearly from space: a monumental dip in global air pollution…

The world has some good news to look forward to amid the novel coronavirus outbreak: a hole in the ozone layer is in recovery.According to New Scientist, a hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica has continued to recover, leading to changes in atmospheric circulation.The ongoing recovery has, according to…

Crosswalk at Broadway and 104th Street, looking north, 4:50 pm, March 24, 2020, in front of the author’s home. The avenue is normally clogged with traffic at this hour. Credit: Kevin Krajick/Earth Institute Vehicle travel, factories, and other air pollution sources are shutting down in the wake of the coronavirus…

The covid-19 pandemic has changed the world, grinding to a halt increasingly large geographic areas and portions of the economy in an effort to slow the virus’ spread.The impacts have been profound on the ground, but government-mandated lockdowns have also remade the atmosphere. Satellite data from China, the first epicenter…

Image: AP ImagesSmog is the natural enemy of humanity. The pollution created by transportation, shipping, and industry has been killing us slowly for decades, contributing to numerous respiratory diseases. And according to a new joint study from the universities of Bologna and Bari in Italy, smog may have been a…

The European Space Agency released new video this weekend that shows air pollution vanishing over China as the country goes into COVID-19 coronavirus lockdown, then returning as business resumes. The animation, based on data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, charts nitrogen dioxide, a noxious gas produced primarily by the burning…

Earlier this week, Amazon announced that it will hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers across the country to handle the online shopping surge caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. This may be welcome news for those facing job losses and customers hoping for speedier deliveries of essential goods. But some in…