Maps Show Big Drop In China’s Air Pollution After Coronavirus Quarantine

March 3, 2020

By
Arjun Walia

In Brief

• The Facts:Satellite Images from NASA and the European Space Agency show a massive reduction in nitrogen dioxide levels over Wuhan compared to last year. NO2 is a harmful gas that's released as a result of burning fuel.
• Reflect On:We don't have to stop driving, or stop producing energy to tackle air pollution. We simply have to transition to clean technology which has been available for decades.

Air pollution is one of the biggest problems facing our planet today, and it can be frustrating to think

about because humanity has the solutions to many of our problems. The issue doesn’t seem to be finding the solutions, the problem seems to be whether or not these solutions are ‘economically feasible.’ At this point, humanity needs to do away with whether or not solutions to our problems are economically feasible. We are constantly putting the economy as our first priority when, in my opinion, we need to do away with that concept entirely.

At the end of the day, it’s a model built on scarcity, and anything coming along that shows the potential to provide abundance seems to be done away with quite fast. Imagine, for example, a device that allowed everybody to access clean and green energy for free, in abundance, without the risk of ‘running out.’ Our entire oil-based economy would collapse. Something seems very wrong with the idea that concepts that are good for the environment, and may provide abundance to the population in various ways can potentially ‘collapse’ the system. If this is indeed the case, the system needs an entire overhaul.

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete…One in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a wage.” -attributed to Buckminister Fuller

The Consequences Of Air Pollution

When talking about poor air quality in particular, it caused an estimated 4.2 million premature deaths in 2016. About 90 percent of these were in low- and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization.  Air pollution has been linked to higher rates of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and respiratory diseases such as asthma. In the U.S. nearly 134 million people—over 40 percent of the population—are at risk of disease and premature death because of air pollution, according to American Lung Association estimates.

Again, it’s frustrating. For example, the electric vehicle has been around for decades, so why are we all not driving around in electric vehicles? It begs the question, what’s really going on here on planet Earth?

One interesting fact to note is that there has been a significant drop in pollution across China while the country attempts to contain COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. NASA satellites, as well as European Space Agency satellites show how nitrogen dioxide, which is a harmful gas that’s released as a result of burning fuel, has been on a sharp decline since the outbreak and containment measures have been put into place.

advertisement - learn more

The drop comes as a result of mass populations staying inside, quarantines, work cancellations all all that comes with this type of disease outbreak, and the efforts to contain it.

The map below depicts nitrogen dioxide levels in Wuhan, China, from January 1st through February 25th of last year, where the region is full of high concentrations of the pollutant. Today, the maps of the same region show a large difference, showing much lower concentrations of the gas.

The crazy thing about it is that we could create an experience where there are ZERO concentrations of the pollutants, and we could do it very easily. We could have done it decades ago.

“This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event,” Fei Liu, an air quality researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement. The steep fall in emissions happened more rapidly than what she observed during the 2008 economic recession, and is also lingering longer than the drop in pollution in Beijing during the Olympics that year. “I am not surprised because many cities nationwide have taken measures to minimize spread of the virus,” Liu said.