There have been drastic improvements to the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere and the air quality in countries such as Italy and China as a result of the Coronavirus.
Due to factories shutting down, the production of certain products the atmosphere has seen a significant decrease in greenhouse gasses such as nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide. Benjamin Storrow of Scientific American the places that have seen the biggest improvements are the places that have been affected the most by the virus such as China and Germany, as well as other countries like Italy.
Another positive effect on the environment due to quarantining has been the air quality in these countries. Due to people not flying as much because of the travel bans some countries have in place and even the lack of the use of cars the amount of carbon dioxide in the air has decreased by 250 million tons just in china.
Even in this time of uncertainty and danger, the environment has seen a lot of positives such as the streets of New York are very clean, and the canals of Venice that are usually extremely dirty and cloudy are now so clear that you can see the fish swimming in some areas of the canals.
According to Christopher Mcfadden of News Week, a lot of countries are also going to be able to meet their Paris Climate Accord goals. Usually, countries cannot meet these emission reduction targets, but with the quarantine, a lot of countries such as Turkey, which has seen a 36 percent decrease in their emissions, are now going to be able to meet those goals.
There has also been an increase in animals roaming the streets according to Lee Brown of the NY Post. In Thailand, there are mass monkey brawls due to the monkeys fighting over food. Usually, these monkeys get food from the trash cans or the scraps that people drop on the ground, but with there not being any of these scraps, the monkeys are forced to fight over the very little food that is available.
The environment will continue to change during this time of panic and emergency. Once this time of crisis is over, hopefully, our environment can continue to thrive, and we can find ways to make sure that our carbon emissions stay at a safe level.