By: Sophia W.
Photo from: WWD
In this day and age, two major catastrophes are living among us: the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The novel coronavirus has impacted the dynamics of society, and in turn, the environment. Some small silver linings from the start of the pandemic include Venice’s clear water canals. Additionally, since people are commuting less to get to work, school, and airports there has been a temporary decrease in air pollution, but these heartening rates are bouncing back up. Furthermore, air traffic makes up 3% of the global CO2 emissions and land-based transportation account for 10% of these emissions.
When looking at China’s air pollution from before COVID and a few months into the pandemic, it is evident that the pollution levels fell and then rose back up steeply. Throughout February and March, China’s nitrogen dioxide pollution declined drastically after factories and manufacturing were halted. Unfortunately, the air pollution levels shot back up in May, into pre-COVID rates, due to factories reopening and their push to make up for lost time in production. Likewise, online shopping, “COVID” waste, and the increase in energy usage during the pandemic have created negative impacts on the environment.
For many, retail-therapy has become even more potent during the pandemic, hence the boom in the amount of online shopping. The amount of returns of clothing items is extremely high due to the excess styles and sizes that people purchase and try on at home, many of which they would not previously buy if they could try it on in person. According to GreenStory’s research, only 6-8% of clothing items are returned from stores in person, compared to 30% of online orders. Because the retailers are unable to resell the items, 20% of the orders end up in landfills. To make matters worse, when people buy various items separately, more plastic packaging is wasted and unnecessary amounts of shipping occurs. To combat this immense increase in shipments and plastic waste, companies need to encourage consumers to bundle their purchases, in order to mitigate unnecessary shipments that could be condensed when possible. Instead of companies releasing products every week, they should be available all together once a month to decrease the amount of impulse purchases. If customers are charged extra for multiple shipments, this can discourage excess pollution from these shipments.
The shutdown of several restaurants across the globe have increased the amount of takeout food ordered. Oftentimes, the food is packaged in plastic or styrofoam containers along with plastic cutlery and straws. Restaurants can instead shift to biodegradable utensils and refrain from giving away plastic cutlery automatically to mitigate ocean plastic pollution. Providing reusable food containers can encourage consumers to save them for future leftovers and extra food storage instead of being thrown away in a landfill.
Photo from: UNCTAD
The increase of ocean pollution in the form of disposable masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer bottles are another aspect of COVID’s effect on the environment. While swimming in the Mediterranean, divers have found dozens of these materials mixed with the usual littering of plastic cups and aluminum cans. In France, the government has ordered two billion disposable masks, which will cause there to eventually be more masks in the ocean than jellyfish. Additionally, the masks take over 450 years until they decompose (that’s almost half as long as it takes for most plastics to biodegrade). Environmentalists are urging people to use reusable masks and only use latex gloves when needed. On a similar note, before throwing away disposable masks, cutting off the straps on the masks can prevent them from getting tangled with marine life.
With online school, working from home, and the constant usage of phones when bored, energy usage has steeply increased and the epidemic of “zombie electronics” is only gaining traction. These include devices such as blenders, toasters, and phone chargers that are plugged into an outlet even when they are not being used. A 2015 NRDC study reported that “zombie electronics” account for nearly a quarter of an average household's power consumption. One way to alleviate this problem would be to simply buy power strips that have a switch where all the electronics connected can be turned off and on with the press of a button.
Photo from: Department of Energy
Moreover, there comes an environmental cost when using the internet: a couple of grams of carbon dioxide are emitted due to the energy needed to power devices and wireless networks. Although this may seem like a small statistic for one person, it sure seems like a lot from a global perspective. Approximately 54% of the world’s population uses the internet and the amount of energy used and greenhouse gases emitted add up. In total, the carbon footprint of our electronics makes up about 4% of greenhouse gas emissions. On a similar note, an email that includes a photo generates about 50 grams of CO2 whereas a regular email produces 4 grams of CO2. If possible, one should swap attachments to images with a link to the document or image and refrain from sending emails to multiple recipients.
Beyond the impacts of internet usage, the climate crisis is making pandemics more prone to occur. Prior to COVID-19, pandemics since the 1900s have been caused by influenza. However, some new strains of the flu have originated in animals and have affected humans in various manners. Animal bites and the consumption of undercooked animal meat or contaminated water directly affect humans. Because anthropogenic climate change is eradicating many ecosystems, animals are forced to migrate to areas they otherwise would not have gone to, increasing contacts with humans. A recent study by Science estimated that 20,000 species worldwide are already on the move because of the increasing temperatures and the change in rainfall levels. Although research isn’t 100% clear on this, scientists believe that the migration of land-based animals will bring along their viruses, which will later be spread to humans.
It is of the utmost importance that anthropogenic activities are addressed and authorities are held accountable for achieving climate change mitigation and driving up the demands for these environmentally-detrimental practices.