Regardless of minor declines, greenhouse gases continued to build up in the atmosphere, stressing the need of ongoing emission decrease efforts.
Those declines in the gases that caused climate change were much more subtle.
Greenhouse gas emissions reduced a little throughout the very first year of COVID, however not sufficient to make an enduring impact. Greenhouse gases that trigger environment modification only reduced a little since we were still heating and cooling our homes, so these gases continued to build up in our atmosphere.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a substantial reduction in air toxins like nitrogen dioxide, but its effect on climate change was very little. Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions were just about 5 to 10% due to the ongoing operation of power plants for cooling and heating. Despite slight decreases, greenhouse gases continued to collect in the atmosphere, highlighting the necessity of ongoing emission decrease efforts.
Has COVID affected climate change?
This is a question we in fact get a lot because one of the very first things that people notice in regards to the environment throughout COVID was that the air seemed to be a bit cleaner.
And when scientists began taking a look at the information, we did see a decrease in air quality pollutants like nitrogen dioxide. In many cases, those declines were as big as 30%. Quite significant.
When we began looking more at greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, the gases that stay in the environment a really long time and triggered climate change, we saw that the decreases were much more subtle, more on the order of 5 to 10%.
Thats because the shorter-lived air contaminants that are damaging to human health are emitted more highly from things like traffic, while the environment polluters, like carbon dioxide, come from things like power plants. Those decreases in the gases that triggered environment change were much more subtle.
Greenhouse gas emissions decreased a little during the very first year of COVID, but not enough to make an enduring impact. Greenhouse gases that trigger environment change just reduced a little because we were still heating and cooling our homes, so these gases continued to build up in our atmosphere.
So has COVID affected environment modification? The response is a bit.
We saw little reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane, but they continued to construct up in our atmosphere similar to in any other year.
That means that we all have to continue to strive to reduce emissions of those gases if we truly wish to turn environment modification around.
We Asked a NASA Expert Video Series