How has COVID-19 had a positive lasting impact on Australia’s environment?

Introduction
COVID-19 is a serious issue occurring all over the world and impacting society in a variety of ways. It
has affected worldwide populations immensely in an unprecedented way through a range of
restrictions put into place by governments and health organisations. These restrictions range from
1.5M physical distancing to compulsory mask wearing and the major impact of travel bans. Although
these restrictions mainly affect individuals’ day to day lives, it also has a huge impact on the planet.
The global disruption of this virus has brought upon positive long term environmental implications.
Due to lockdowns and quarantining, there has been a significant absence of people in cities
worldwide. In this absence, nature was returning to a much healthier and intact condition. Since the
COVID-19 restrictions have been put in place, air pollution levels have significantly decreased due to
less transport running and polluting factories being temporarily shut down which contributed to a
thriving environment. Since this change, many global organisations have congregated in forms of
online communication to collaborate and exchange further ideas about the pandemic’s impact on the
environment of various popular cities in multiple continents.

Biological Concepts
The coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019 thus naming it COVID-19.1
During the past year since restrictions were established there has been an enormous and continuing
to increase drop in greenhouse gas emissions. Since these measures, harmful toxins ranging from CO₂
(carbon dioxide), NO₂ (nitrogen dioxide) and CO (carbon monoxide) have been rapidly decreasing.
These pollutants are mainly emitted from burning fossil fuels due to the constant use of transport by
individuals as well as industries and electricity generation but the common factor between the three
happen to be human activity. Since COVID-19 was considered a pandemic in March, 2020 due to its
highly infectious rate, many businesses and industries have been temporarily shut down for
individuals to isolate and to avoid the infectious spread of coronavirus. This respiratory virus spreads
from individual to individual through respiratory droplets released through the act of breathing,
speaking, coughing or sneezing. These droplets are able to be inhaled or even potentially land in the
nose or mouth of an individual.2 However, coronavirus particles that are microscopic, linger in the
atmosphere for hours which allows airborne transmission to be possible. Therefore if the virus has
contaminated any surface in the vicinity of people, the spread of infection is extremely high. To
reduce this infectious rate, health organisations implicated lockdowns or the act of isolation to track
the transmission rate and stop the spread. Due to the need for everyone to isolate themselves, this
led to less greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere due to the decreasing energy consumption
used in companies and factories.

SHE Concept: Communication and Collaboration

The pandemic has brought upon unprecedented times in countries all over the world especially in
highly dense areas such as China and India. However, through government’s restrictions of lockdowns
and travel bans, it has created the break that the environment needed in order to slow down global
warming. Global organisations have researched and introduced many new theories according to data
gathered throughout the time of the pandemic. An ecologist by the name of Amanda Bates studying
at the Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada researched thoroughly about the
negative and positive environmental implications of coronavirus. She led an international team of
more than 350 researchers to study intensely on how lockdowns have affected the planet. Although
these researchers were situated in various places of the world, they were able to come together
through online forms of communication such as video meetings and phone calls. Through the use of
1
Curious. 2021. What impact will COVID-19 have on the environment?. [online] Available at:
<https://www.science.org.au/curious/earth-environment/what-impact-will-covid-19-have-environment>
[Accessed 28 June 2021].
2
Henryford.com. 2021. Why Is COVID-19 More Contagious Than The Flu?. [online] Available at:
<https://www.henryford.com/blog/2020/11/why-is-covid-more-contagious-than-flu#:~:text=Small%20C
OVID%2D19%20particles%20may,in%20your%20nose%20or%20mouth.> [Accessed 8 August 2021].
contacting, each researcher was able to express their data findings and theories where other
researchers were able to listen and provide their own data findings to support, verify or create new
pathways.

The international team of researchers collected and analysed over a hundred scientific monitoring
programs and media reports from 60 to 70 countries. Monitoring programs included satellites from
NASA and the European Space Agency to observe the detected pollution decrease in airborne CO₂
and NO₂ emissions after restrictions were put into place. From these reports, obvious evidence was
found of lockdowns providing benefits to the environment due to the loss of air, land and water
travel. Due to the reduced air and noise pollution from the shut down of manufacturing and
industries, the wildlife also benefited and therefore thrived due to the change in the environment.
There was an obvious change among beaches and parks due to less rubbish being found as well the
closure of some beaches around the world leading to wildlife taking over the shorelines. However as
the world is continuously changing every minute, the data collected during the pandemic is extremely
useful when developing effective conservation efforts which take into consideration the aspects of
how humans influence their surroundings. Rebecca Shaw, chief scientist at the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) spoke about how it is important to oversee how these responses change over time as human
interactions increase and achieve normalcy. She believes by using this information, it will create new
and improved conservation actions which will allow biodiversity to increase away from human
populations.

Conclusion
COVID-19 has had a huge impact on individuals’ and businesses all over the world in a negative
aspect but it has also had a positive impact on the natural environment of the planet. There has been
an obvious decline in airborne pollutants which allowed flora and fauna to thrive in this clean and
healthy environment. Organisations and researchers worldwide were able to gather credible data on
the huge drop in carbon emissions and create new theories and form new studies to provide better
conservation ideas for the future. The positive impacts seen throughout the course of the pandemic
are likely to be temporary so finding new ways to develop resilient conserving systems is essential in
the long term.
References

Curious. 2021. What impact will COVID-19 have on the environment?. [online] Available at:
<https://www.science.org.au/curious/earth-environment/what-impact-will-covid-19-have-environment>
[Accessed 28 June 2021].

Henryford.com. 2021. Why Is COVID-19 More Contagious Than The Flu?. [online] Available at:
<https://www.henryford.com/blog/2020/11/why-is-covid-more-contagious-than-flu#:~:text=Small%20C
OVID%2D19%20particles%20may,in%20your%20nose%20or%20mouth.> [Accessed 8 August 2021].

Science Daily. 2021. Environmental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as observed from space.
[online] Available at: <https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201208162957.htm> [Accessed
20 July 2021]. - 20/7

The University of Sydney. 2021. Socio-economic, environmental impacts of coronavirus quantified.

[online] Available at:
<https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2020/07/10/socioeconomic-and-environmental-impact
s-of-coronavirus-quantifie.html> [Accessed 19 July 2021].

Tombag.com.au. 2021. [online] Available at:

<https://www.tombag.com.au/post/the-impact-of-coronavirus-on-australia-environment> [Accessed 19
July 2021].

Smithsonian Magazine. 2021. The Positive and Negative Impacts of Covid on Nature. [online]
Available at:
<https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/positive-and-negative-impacts-covid-nature-180977
840/> [Accessed 22 July 2021].