Thanks to data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, scientists can monitor the gas composition of our planet’s atmosphere. In the picture below, for example, you can see the amount of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over France in March 2019 (left) and between March 14 and 25 of this year (right). The more intense the red color, the more harmful fumes are in the air:
Scientists at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Meteorology explain that in order to track the real picture of events, it is necessary to make a sample-based not on one but several samples – because the gas composition varies depending on the weather, wind speed and a number of other factors.
NO2 is a dirty-brown gas that is emitted when nuclear charges are detonated, staining the ‘nuclear fungus’ in appropriate tones. During the Apollo-Soyuz mission, it nearly killed the astronauts on board. As you have probably already understood, this is an extremely toxic compound – and as a result of quarantine, its content in the atmosphere began to decline markedly.
And it’s not just nitrogen dioxide. According to satellite data, stopping traffic and reducing industrial emissions have made the sky cleaner and the air fresh, even over megacities. But will mankind draw conclusions from this when the pandemic is over and the world returns to a normal working course?
It’s true that the environmentalists are not too happy. In China, for example, where restrictions on movement and production were applied for the first time, everything is back to normal. Unfortunately, without qualitatively new measures to preserve the ecological situation, after 2-3 months we will return to the same conditions and continue to pollute the air day by day.
The environmental crisis and the pandemic have the same nature – anthropogenic.
Human activity, built mainly on the burning of fossil fuels, creates conditions for climate change. As a consequence, many vectors are changing their habitat: what used to be the fate of tropical regions is now spreading across the planet. As an example, Man-made noise is a danger to marine fauna.
Famous scientist and writer David Quammen in his book Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic speaks about the anthropogenic nature of the emergence of new viruses: “We invade tropical forests and other wild landscapes, which are home to so many species of animals and plants, and inside these creatures – so many unknown viruses. We cut down trees, we kill animals or put them in cages and send them to markets. We destroy ecosystems and force viruses to leave their natural habitats. Because of us, they are looking for a new home, and we often become that home.
The pandemic will give the planet at least a global, but only a short respite. If we compare it with the economic crisis of 2008, then global emissions fell by 1.4%, and next year they increased by 6%, which compensated for and exceeded this reduction.
But the seismology scientists are happy. Metro, railroad, factories, and mines created constant obstacles for them. This is an opportunity to study the nature of earthquakes and for the first time understand the planet as it is.
