The world is facing a pandemic affected by the COVID-19 coronavirus, which hit the world by surprise much like climate change has done within the recent years.
Society talks about climate change and lack of effort by the United States to combat it.
Climate change is a relevant topic in society because we witness it in wildfires in the Amazon forest and global warming.
With this in mind, how is the coronavirus health crisis going to impact climate change in the future?
Will this pandemic decrease it or perpetuate it further?
Personally, I believe climate change will be positively affected because greenhouse gas emissions are decreasing due to the coronavirus shutdown.
Greenhouse gas emissions are produced largely through human activity which has affected our planet at an aggressive rate.
Another way the coronavirus may impact climate change is a decrease in air pollutants due to shutdown of many companies.
Society will have cleaner air in this time of self-quarantine when most businesses are closed.
UC Irvine student Sivani Pelluru shared her thoughts about whether the health crisis will impact climate change in a positive or negative way.
“Better because most factories are being shut down and the encouragement of [staying] indoors encourages less transportation so less pollution in the air,” Pelluru said.
Long Beach City College student Julian Javate spoke about his thoughts about bodily responses to COVID-19.
“It will have a significant impact by affecting primarily the immune systems of the population since they are subjected to lower temperatures and causing bodies to experience a change in their homeostasis states,” Javate said.
Both students believe the health crisis will impact climate change in a positive way because of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions which is a huge factor in climate change.
However, other students don’t believe that coronavirus will improve climate change in the world.
Cypress College student Gisselle Figueroa shared her thoughts.
“In my opinion, I’d say that the coronavirus will do neither. Sure it’s an airborne-type virus but it hasn’t helped or damaged climate change,” Figueroa said.
At the end of the day we will have to maintain decorum and wait for the COVID-19 situation to alleviate.
Self-quarantining is the best option in regards to mediating the coronavirus crisis and to help society understand the impact it will have on the environment.