THE IMPACT OF COVID 19 ON THE

ENVIRONMENT
(Project towards partial fulfilment of the assessment in the subject of Environmental
Law)

BY MANISH
Introduction

One of the significant impacts of the coronavirus pandemic was the resulting effect of the
lockdown on the environment. Once the lockdown started, it was as though everything had
come to a screeching stop; motorways cleared and factories closed; then from space, it
appeared that something extraordinary was going on. (1) After just a few days of the
lockdown, dirty brown pollution belts began shrinking over cities and industrial centers in
country after country. (1) This report chronicles the observations made during this period
regarding carbon emission, plants, and forests, freshwater quality, littering, and wildlife.
Carbon emission

Many countries including China, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany experienced falls
in carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide of as much as 40%, greatly improving air quality and
reducing the risks of asthma, heart attacks, and lung disease. (1) During the lockdown, air
traffic halved in mid-March 2020 compared with the same time in 2019; in April, road traffic
fell in the UK by more than 70%. In China, emissions were down about 18% between early
February and mid-March 2020; amounting to a cut of 250m tonnes. Europe witnessed a
reduction of around 390m tonnes; the US also saw significant falls of 40% in CO2.
(1) During the pandemic lockdown, fewer drivers were on the roads, and fewer planes
were in the air resulting in a fall in the price of crude oil by about 66%. Car sales also
fell by 44% in March of 2020, with motorway traffic down 83%. (1) With less human
movement, the planet appeared to calm down, and seismologists reported lower
vibrations from seismic noise than before the pandemic. From the above, the
pandemic provided a glimpse of how quickly we could clean our air with renewables.
(1) In spite of the above, the key question was the impact of the lockdown on the
overall amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Findings show that the annual average CO2
concentrations still increased through 2020, even though emissions were reduced.
(2) In 2020, researchers estimated that CO2 levels rose by 2.48 parts per million (ppm);
this was 0.32ppm lower than if there had been no lockdown, and equivalent to 11% of
the expected rise. In 2020, global CO2 emissions were smaller, and although levels
increased, they occurred at a slower rate. For example, CO2 levels had increased from
316ppm in 1959 to 411ppm in 2019 and without the pandemic lockdown, an increase
of 2.80ppm was expected for 2020. Due to lower crude oil and coal consumption, the
International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated a total global reduction in fossil fuel
emissions of almost 2.6bn tonnes of CO2 over 2020 which is an 8% reduction. (2)
This would reduce the annual increase in CO2 concentrations by 0.32ppm.

Wild animals

Reports from all over the world showed that while humans were in lockdown, wildlife
took over the empty spaces. One good result of this is that in 2020, there was a much
lower toll for roadkill by cars and trucks. In the United Kingdom, roadkill is
responsible for the death of about 100,000 hedgehogs, 30,000 deer, 50,000 badgers,
and 100,000 foxes, as well as barn owls and many other species of birds and insects.
In Brazil, an estimated 1.3 million animals die every day after being struck by cars
and trucks. This includes 165 different species of amphibians, reptiles, avian, and
mammals. In the U.S. with three times as many cars and trucks as Brazil, the number
of animals killed by the traffic from 253 million cars remains largely unknown; more
animals are killed by cars each day than could be estimated. (5) In spite of this,
Scientific American reported that one to two million animals were killed by motorists
every year in the United States; this is the equivalent of one collision every 26
seconds.
That does not include all the raccoons, skunks, and other smaller animals that usually
go unreported when hit. In Australia, roadkill data suggest a conservative estimate of
4 million mammals per year. The data for roadkill in the 195 countries of the world
would be staggering; however, many of the animals that could have been killed were
spared due to the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. During the lockdown, coyotes that
are normally timid of traffic were spotted on the Golden Gate Bridge in San
Francisco. Deer were grazing in Washington DC, a few miles from the White House.
Wild boar became bolder in Barcelona, Spain, and Bergamo, Italy. In Wales,
peacocks were strutting through Bangor; goats were roaming through Llandudno, and
sheep were filmed on roundabouts in deserted playgrounds in Monmouthshire. In
Nara, Japan, sika deer wandered through city streets and subway stations. Raccoons
were spotted on the beach in San Felipe, Panama; and turkeys roamed through
Oakland, California.
Although it would appear that the increased visibility of wild animals in the streets
signaled a positive impact of the lockdown, there were also negative impacts. For
example, fewer people in the streets drove some species away, especially those that
depended on humans to feed them or leave behind some food in the trash. That was
the case in Nara Park, where the sika deer which had grown accustomed to tourists
lining up year-round to feed them began wandering into the city looking for food.
They were spotted crossing streets and walking through subway stations, snacking on
 potted plants. In Lopburi, Thailand, the absence of tourists and their snacks left local
monkeys brawling over leftover food, while others hung from cables.

Also, the coronavirus pandemic lockdown may have shifted animal behavior; urban
foxes and coyotes might venture out of their hiding spots a bit more; and other
animals might roam, graze and hunt new pastures. The picture was also different
across the world; while rich, industrialized nations witnessed a temporary recovery of
nature, poorer countries, especially those in the southern hemisphere, feared an
increased threat to wildlife because the pandemic resulted in less money and
personnel with which to conserve endangered species and habitats. For example, in
the Amazon rainforest, environmental authorities had to cut back on monitoring and
protection operations; in the Masai Mara and Serengeti, nature reserves took in less
tourist revenue, and therefore, struggled to pay rangers. As a result, there was more
illegal poaching, mining, and logging.

In Cambodia, three critically endangered giant ibises were killed for meat in April
following the collapse of the local tourism industry; and Panthera, an organization
involved in big cat conservation, recorded a spike in poaching, with two jaguars, an
ocelot, and a puma killed within a few weeks. In central Africa, measures to protect
mountain gorillas from the virus resulted in a slump in vital visitor revenue. Twelve
rangers who guarded Virunga national park, where the gorillas live were killed in
Democratic Republic of Congo in April. Black rhinos in the Okavango Delta,
Botswana, were evacuated after at least six were killed by poachers in March 2020.

Plants and forests

One of the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic was that loggers exploited the lockdown for
illegal logging. For example, data gathered by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research
(INPE) indicate that there was a 55% increase in deforestation alerts between January and
April of 2020 compared to the previous year. The surge in agricultural expansion and illegal
mining was not only witnessed in Brazil but also in Colombia. Deforestation and the sale of
live wild animals or bush meat, such as bats and monkeys, make the emergence of new
viruses inevitable. One of the good impacts was that many areas delayed cutting the grass on
roadside verge thereby increasing habitats for colorful wildflowers which provide more
pollen for bees.
Impact on freshwater quality

During the lockdown, scientists witnessed improved natural water quality. For example, with
the help of remote sensing images, Vembanad Lake, the longest freshwater lake in India
showed significant improvement in surface water quality in terms of suspended particulate
matter (SPM).
The SPM concentration during the lockdown period decreased by 15.9% on average (range:
10.3% to 36.4%), up to an 8 mg/l decrease compared with the pre-lockdown period. Time
series analysis of satellite image collections (April 2013 – April 2020) showed that the SPM
quantified for April 2020 was the lowest for 11 out of 20 zones of the Vembanad lake. When
compared with preceding years, the percentage decrease in SPM for April 2020 was up to
34% from the previous minima. The water in Venice's canals also became much clearer, with
small fish visible swimming around. Litter During the pandemic, people were required to
wear protective gear when in public spaces or in hospital environments; however, people
were dumping their protective gear in hospital parking garages, abandoned grocery carts, and
even on scenic nature trails. The problem, of course, was that underpaid and overworked
sanitation and grocery workers were inevitably the ones to pick them up.
In addition to potentially being a biohazard, used masks and gloves are neither recyclable nor
biodegradable; they can easily be swept into storm drains and eventually end up in oceans
and waterways. That, in turn, raised the risk that they could be mistaken for food and eaten by
turtles, marine mammals, or seabirds. Conservationists worry about the long-term
implications of the new influx of trash as alarming numbers of single-use masks were piling
up on nature trails and beaches in Hong Kong. Concluding remarks The pandemic
demonstrated that pollution lowers our resistance to disease. Research showed that tiny
pollutant particles (PM2.5), breathed over many years, sharply increased the chances of dying
from the virus. Counties that averaged just one microgram per cubic meter more PM2.5 in
the air had a COVID-19 death rate that was 15 percent higher. The particles penetrate the
body, promoting hypertension, heart disease, breathing problems, and diabetes, all of which
increase complications in coronavirus patients. PM2.5 also weakens the immune system and
triggers inflammation in the lungs and respiratory tract, adding to the risk both of getting
COVID-19 and of having severe symptoms. This observation confirmed a 2003 report that
death rates due to SARS in China’s most polluted areas were twice as high as in the least
polluted ones.
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