User:Chemkatz/Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment

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(Lead)
As of November 2021, the continuing COVID-19 pandemic had killed over 5 million people. As a result of the severity of the virus, most countries enacted lockdowns to protect people, mitigate the spread, and ensure space in hospitals. These lockdowns disrupted everyday life worldwide, decreasing the level and frequency of human activity and production. Despite the severity of these circumstances, there were clear positive effects on the environment and climate as a result of the slow in activity. As human activity slowed globally (commonly referred to as "anthropause"), the use of fossil fuels, resource consumption, and waste disposal decreased substantially, generating less air and water pollution in many regions of the world. For example, there was a sharp and lasting decline in planned air travel and vehicle transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In China, lockdowns and other measures resulted in a 25% reduction in carbon emissions, 26% decrease in coal consumption, and a 50% reduction in nitrogen oxides emissions. Earth systems scientist Marshall Burke estimated that just two months of pollution reduction likely saved the lives of 77,000 Chinese residents. Other positive effects on the environment include governance-system-controlled investments towards a sustainable energy transition and other goals related to environmental protection. One of these investments is the European Union's seven-year €1 trillion budget proposal and €750 billion recovery plan, "Next Generation EU," which seeks to reserve 25% of EU spending for climate-friendly expenditure.

However, some human activity during the pandemic also provided cover for illegal activities, such as deforestation of the Amazon rainforest and increased poaching in Africa. The hindering of environmental diplomacy efforts in combination with late capitalism also created economic fallout that some predict will slow investment in green energy technologies. A negative side effect of Covid 19 includes the global increase of biomedical waste due to hospitals treating such a large portion of patients that need tests requiring masks, gloves, needles, syringes, and medicines. On top of this hazardous waste, the precautionary disinfection measures necessary after treating each patient play a role in the excess of medical waste. When not managed properly, this waste can cause further spread of infection. While some scientists highlight the detriments of this virus, the majority of research supports the positive benefits of the quarantine on the planet, outweighing the latter.

Background
Increasing amounts of greenhouse gases since the beginning of the industrialization era has caused average global temperatures on the Earth to rise at an alarming rate. The effects of global temperature rise include the melting of glaciers, severe storms, increased drought, loss of species, frequent wildfires, a decreasing water supply, and rising sea levels. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, measures that were expected to be recommended by health authorities in the case of a pandemic included quarantines and social distancing. Simultaneously, researchers predicted that a reduction in economic activity would target the issues created by global warming; it would halt rising temperatures, as well as diminish air and marine pollution, which, as seen before, would result in the restoration of the environment to a flourishing state. COVID-19 forced industries, businesses, and large corporations to shut down, and while the damage caused to humans, the economy, and society has been extensive, the environment began to heal from its constant exploitation of resources. This relationship between humans and the earth has been observed in various pandemics in the past such as the Spanish flu and small pox epidemic, and is reoccurring yet again as an effect of COVID-19. As humans return to their pre-covid lifestyles, researchers and officials have called for biodiversity protections as part of COVID-19 recovery strategies.

The atmosphere's impact on water quality
The vast reduction of nitrous oxides in the atmosphere diffused far from the industrial borders of China. The metropolitan centers of New York, Paris, and London recorded 40% declines in nitrous oxide in the first two weeks of Spring 2020 in comparison to the prior year. In March 2020, Los Angeles (notorious for both traffic and smog) saw a 20% increase in air quality due to the quarantine. In the San Francisco Bay Area, traffic was down 45%, leading to a stark contrast in carbon dioxide emissions compared to previous years. In the atmosphere, water particles mix with carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. The result of this mixing is acid rain. The acid rain pollutes rivers and lakes, which in turn, harms aquatic life. There is an interconnected relationship between the quality of the air and the cleanliness of water. Researchers have witnessed and confirmed these strong correlations between the simultaneous improvement in air and water quality during the pandemic.

United States of America
The onset of COVID-19 in the United States improved air quality. The improvement in air quality also led to improvements in water quality. In the San Francisco Bay, notable reductions in water pollution were observed. Experts have attributed the reduction of water particulates to the absence of traffic due to the pandemic. Additionally, studies about the relationship between COVID-19 and NO2 concentration level in New York City revealed that environmental quality significantly improved during the pandemic. This information pointed to improved air quality in New York City as a result of the correlation between air and water quality.

In April 2020, Oregon State University launched a public health project named TRACE-COVID-19, which performed over 60,000 individual tests and 3,000 wastewater tests throughout Oregon communities. The purpose of the project was to determine the community prevalence of COVID-19 and ultimately aimed to both lower the risk and slow the spread of the virus. The data collected from the TRACE program helped officials decide what public health actions to take.

A study in Massachusetts found that between March 27 and May 14, 2020 car travel reduced by 71% and truck traffic reduced by 46%. The significant decrease in traffic correlated with a direct reduction in atmospheric levels of harmful particulates from vehicular emission, resulting in a decrease in overall air pollution. The atmospheric particulate reductions led to an improvement in water quality.

Peru
The Peruvian jungle experienced 14 oil spills from the beginning of the pandemic through early October 2020. Of these, eight spills were in a single sector operated by Frontera Energy del Perú S.A. which ceased operations during the pandemic and is not maintaining its wells and pipes. The oil seeps into the ground where it contaminates the drinking water of indigenous people in Quichua territory. Oil spills in this region of the Peruvian Amazon, Block 192, have been a problem for a long time with approximately 2,000 sites destroyed due to the oil. Due to the amount of oil that seeped into the drinking water and environment, the Quichua people of Nueva Andoas are at particularly high risk for diseases such as Covid-19. In 2016, a study was done collecting samples from 1,168 people living near Block 192 which showed that half of those tested had toxic metals in their blood at levels above the World Health Organization's acceptable limits. Due to "the double calamity of oil spills and the virus", the Indigenous people living in the Peruvian Amazon are in an extremely vulnerable position, only further compounded by a lack of medicine, lack of doctors, and poor government response.

Italy
In Venice, shortly after quarantine began (March 2020), water in the canals cleared and experienced greater water flow. The increase in water quality was primarily caused by a decrease in turbidity due to a reduction in boat traffic which stirs up sediment. In the year prior, during the initial onset of the coronavirus, organizations such as the European Space Agency detected the striking change between the water in the Venetian canals as the country became more and more contaminated. Two satellite images, one taken on April 19, 2019 and the other on April 13, 2020, showed the water in the canals transitions from a paler, teal coloration to a deeper blue. This showed the increase in the health of the water as the coronavirus set in across the country. Through this Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, the space agency's images captured the benefit of less transportive travel on Venice's waterways and highlighted that, despite the decline in tourists as the city shut down, the canals contained water far cleaner and safer for organisms and consumption than was the case previously. While the water in the Venetian canals cleared up due to the decrease in boat transportation and pollution, marine life returned to the area in far less numbers than previously believed. Although numerous social media posts depicted dolphins and other oceanic creatures venturing back to Venice's shores, National Geographic exposed the falsities behind these rumors, showing images captured in different places and debunking the hopes circulating around that the impact of COVID-19 contributed to healthier waters and a re-emergence of wildlife. Misinformation such as the claims made about animals infiltrating Venice's waterways have given people a distorted image of both the ongoing pandemic and climate change crises, concealing growing problems such as the city's current low tides.

India
In India, more than 28 million people were affected by the rapid transmission of the COVID-19 virus. As a result, the Government of India put the whole country on a full lockdown. While many suffered under these circumstances, both socially and financially, environmental researchers discovered significant improvements to environmental quality during the slow in human activity and travel. In a "metadata analysis of river water quality (RWQ)," the tests indicated that the rivers in Damodar, an "urban-industrial" area, had improved in quality. There was a reduction in pollution that led to this improvement in water quality. A second study conducted on the Damodar in January 2021 revealed a significant change of the water quality during the pandemic. In the pre-lockdown period, the Water Pollution Index (WPI) of samples from the river fell between 1.59 to 2.46, indicating a high level of pollution. In contrast, during the lockdown, the WPI for water samples ranged from 0.52 to 0.78, indicating that samples were either ‘good' or ‘moderately polluted' water. The significant improvement in the WPI suggested that the shutdowns of heavy industries and subsequent reduction of toxic pollutants led to an increase in water quality. Similar to the river Damodar, the Ganga experienced significant improvements with regards to water quality. Specifically, DO levels increased, while BOD and nitrate concentrations decreased. The nationwide lockdown and shutdown of major industries not only increased river quality, but the quality of polluted creeks. Waste inflow was reduced up to 50% according to national dailies. Both studies point to a significant improvement in water quality as a result of India's complete lockdown. The changes were a result of a decrease in sewage and wastewater being discharged into the rivers. This is most likely because of Damodar's specific location in an industrial area. The industrial area experienced extremely different levels of activity as a result of the lockdown, so the results of the water quality tests from before the pandemic and after were affected by the different levels of activity. In addition to the studies mentioned above, another study was done on Vembanad Lake, the longest lake in India. The suspended particulate matter concentration decreased by about 16% during lockdown compared to before lockdown.

China
As the first country affected by the pandemic, China had to adapt to new health and safety restrictions before any other nation, starting in January 2020. Since many of the large industries in China shutdown during the COVID-19 lockdown, the water quality significantly improved. Results from monthly field measurements on river water quality in China showed improvements for several different indicators. Ammonia nitrogen was the first indicator to rapidly reduce after the lockdown, while dissolved oxygen and chemical oxygen demand started to show improvements in early-February and mid-March. The pH levels of the river water finally started to increase in late-March to May. **(written by User:Tguagent) Following the lockdown, a study conducted by scientists, Dong Liua, Hong Yang, and Julian R. Thompson, found that all water quality parameters returned to normal conditions. Considering these conditions have improved during a temporary lockdown period, the study indicated that for the future well-being of the environment there should be a pollutant reduction strategy that is location-specific and sustained in order to maintain progress.

 South Africa 

During the pandemic, developing countries in Africa didn't have the infrastructure, equipment, facilities, and trained staff to do widespread tests for COVID-19, so they used wastewater surveillance as a way to highlight hotspot areas, especially in the country of South Africa. This allowed them to discover where SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA exists in different wastewater after testing municipal wastewater (industrial wastewater), surface water (rivers, canals, dams), and drinking water. Traces of SARS-CoV-2 RNA were found in wastewater treatment facilities in the first phases of treatment, but once the water was treated there was no RNA detected. While the treated water was safe for drinking and other uses, the wastewater from the treatment facilities that drained into rivers or seas could still have some SARS-CoV-2 RNA, but it was too low to be detected which proved it to be unlikely. No other water source had detected SARS-CoV-2 RNA which led scientists of this experiment to see no prominent harm done from the pandemic on the water quality in South Africa.

Morocco
The COVID-19 lockdown had a positive effect for the water quality of the Boukhalef River in northern Morocco. Researchers used Sentinel 3 water surface temperature (WST) values to test several locations along the Boukhalef River before and after the lockdown. Before the lockdown there were high WST values indicating poor water quality at these sites. However, after the lockdown, industrial activities greatly reduced their production and subsequent polluting of the water. As a result, there were normal WST values indicating normal water quality in the same sites.

England
One study of water use using the CityWat-SemiDistributed (CWSD) system analyzed how the lockdown during COVID-19 affected the water supply. Increases in household water consumption were attributed to increased use of appliances and preventative measures such as hand washing. The lack of activity outside of the home was associated with a 35% increase in water use. Due to a lack of people commuting into large cities, pollution concentration zones changed; the rivers in London became less polluted, but water quality became worse near individual's households. This can prevent the continued pollution of larger rivers, but could also overuse smaller ones that are in suburban areas.

Not published yet - written about England
Consistent with the rest of the world, England implemented a country-wide lockdown, prohibiting any "non-essential travel." Increases in household water consumption can be attributed to increased use of appliances and preventative measures such as hand washing. ***(written by User:ETAPx) Moreover, prior to this steep increase, South England was previously categorized as "severely water stressed." **(written by user: chemofwaterstudent28)

Ecuador
During the pandemic, data and surveys were collected to see how water quality of the ocean was affected. Preliminary data showed that the ocean water appeared clearer and cleaner because of the lack of people swimming and visiting the beaches. Residents of the Salinas beach were surveyed on the quality of the water twice, 10 weeks apart, during quarantine. Out of a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the worst quality and 5 being the best, participants said that after the 10 weeks, the quality went from a 2.83 to a 4.33. Off the coast of Ecuador, the Galapagos islands also saw improvements on water quality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because fewer people were on the beach, water contamination was at an all time low. Researchers noticed the presence of more turtles, sea lions and sharks in the water because of the lack of pollution.

Unfortunately, sanitary water conditions became a concern in Ecuador during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was thought that SARS-CoV-2 could be contracted through fecal matter in wastewater treatment plants throughout the world. In the case of Ecuador, less than 20% of its wastewater is treated before being discharged into bodies of water. The urban area of Quito, Ecuador was particularly affected by the lack of wastewater treatment. Its population of 3 million citizens was affected by its lack of water sanitation which resulted in an under-diagnosed demographic. At the time of testing, reports claimed that only 750 citizens were infected with COVID-19, but the actual wastewater contamination showed a larger percentage of the population infected. Due to improper wastewater management, COVID-19 infected Ecuador's citizens through water contamination.

Nepal
The Bagmati River runs through the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu. Together with its tributaries, the river makes up a water basin that runs throughout the Kathmandu valley. A July 2021 study showed that the Bagmati River basin saw considerable improvement in water quality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reduced human activity caused BOD, an important indicator of bacteria levels in water, in the river basin to decrease by 1.5 times the level before lockdowns were implemented.

Egypt
A reduction in human activities due to COVID-19 mitigation measures led to less industrial wastewater dumping in the Nile River, the Nile's various canals and tributaries, the Nile Delta, and various lakes in Egypt. Additionally, less tourist ships sailed on the Nile, thereby diminishing the frequency of oil and gas spills. Less shipping traffic through the Suez Canal also helped to improve its water quality. Similar reductions in wastewater dumping and shipping traffic contributed to improving the quality of Egypt's coastal Mediterranean waters as well. After the onset of the pandemic, members of Egyptian villages began to purify their own water. The Zawyat Al-Na’ura village utilized ultraviolet rays as a water purification technique.

Water demand
Water demand was affected by the pandemic in many ways. Hygiene was one of the main forces used to combat the pandemic. Adopting practices like washing hands frequently with soap and water, disinfecting surfaces, and cleaning food, increased the demand for water.

Residential areas
In residential areas water demand increased, This was, in part, due to the fact that people were staying home due to mandated lockdowns, resulting in them using water at home rather than in their places of work or out at restaurants. Higher water usage at home caused increases in residential water bills, causing further financial stress to those impacted by the pandemic.

Desert-like areas
As opposed to some regions benefitting from lockdowns, water scarce regions severely suffered. For example, in Nevada, there was approximately a 11.7-13.1% water usage increase within the first month of quarantine. Despite this surge in household water usage, businesses were using substantially less water. Furthermore, schools' water usage declined by nearly 66.2%. Cumulatively, during this first month of quarantine, there was between 1.8-3.3% uptick in overall water usage. Consequently, there were efforts to restrict household water usage because of this region's already scarce water supply. These measures included water rations and other limitations put on citizens for their water use, like watering the grass.

Industrial sector
Numerous public buildings were shutdown for significant amounts of time. The result of these long-time shut downs was water quality issues such as mold in standing water in pipes and leaching. These became of concern as non-residential demand increased back to normal levels when the shut downs ended. The effects varied depending on the makeup of the non-residential sectors, however as a whole changes in water demand were seen. The changes in demand also had major impacts on water utilities. Utilities saw significant revenue losses, as total water usage dropped in many areas and there were increases in unpaid water bills. Some companies had to offer overtime and hazard pay to their employees, as their work became increasingly essential. Increased operational costs in combination with revenue losses created detrimental financial stress for some utilities. Industries that were part of the water supply chain experienced revenue losses as the industrial water demand declined.

Underdeveloped countries
In areas already facing barriers to water access across the globe, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Yemen, the pandemic exacerbated challenges. Additionally, preexisting inequalities relating to infrastructure and water access were likely a factor contributing to disparate impacts of the pandemic. The World Health Organization and UNICEF strongly recommend sanitary hand washing facilities to be the bare minimum for fighting COVID-19 and suggest that lack of access to these necessary facilities (for over 74 million people in the Arab regions) for putting people at very high risk of contracting COVID-19.

In some undeveloped countries, the government temporarily stopped charging low-income residents for their water bills. This was an effort to mitigate the impact of using more water for the people whose financials were already scarce. The implementation of this process caused a huge loss in revenue for water companies.

Seismic noise reduction
Seismologists have reported that quarantine, lockdown, and other measures to mitigate COVID-19 have resulted in a mean global high-frequency seismic noise reduction of up to 50%. This study reports that the noise reduction resulted from a combination of factors including reduced traffic/transport, lower industrial activity, and weaker economic activity. The reduction in seismic noise was observed at both remote seismic monitoring stations and at borehole sensors installed several hundred metres below the ground. The study states that the reduced noise level may allow for better monitoring and detection of natural seismic sources, such as earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Noise pollution has been shown to negatively affect both humans and invertebrates. The WHO suggests that 100 million people in Europe are negatively affected by unwanted noise daily, resulting in hearing loss, cardiovascular disorders, loss of sleep, and negative psychological effects. During the pandemic, however, government enforced travel mandates lowered car and plane movements resulting in significant reduction in noise pollution.

Deforestation and reforestation
Due to the sharp decrease in job opportunities during the pandemic, many unemployed individuals were hired to help illegal deforestation operations throughout the world, specifically in the tropics. According to the deforestation alerts from Global Land Analysis & Discovery (GLAD), a total of 9583 km2 of deforested lands were detected across the global tropics during the first month following the establishment of COVID-19 precautions, which was approximately two times that seen the year before, in 2019 (4732 km2). The disruption from the pandemic provided cover for illegal deforestation operations in Brazil, which were at a 9-year high. Satellite imagery showed deforestation of the Amazon rainforest surging by over 50% compared to baseline levels. Conversely, unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic facilitated the recruitment of laborers for Pakistan's 10 Billion Tree Tsunami campaign to plant 10 billion trees – the estimated global annual net loss of trees – over the span of 5 years. Because the pandemic saw many authorities unemployed, poaching became much more popular during 2020 and 2021. In Columbia, illegal activities and wildfires were the two biggest factors contributing to the further destruction of the rainforests.

Deforestation has an impact on clean drinking water. One study showed that a 1% increase in deforestation decreases access to clean drinking water by 0.93%. Deforestation lowers water quality because it lowers the soil infiltration of water which causes a higher level of turbidity in the water. In countries that are not able to pay for drinking water treatment this poses a significant issue.

Food production
Small-scale farmers have been embracing digital technologies as a way to directly sell produce, and community-supported agriculture and direct-sell delivery systems are on the rise. These methods have benefited smaller online grocery stores which predominantly sell organic and more local food and can have a positive environmental impact due to consumers who prefer to receive deliveries rather than travel to the store by car. Online grocery shopping has grown substantially during the pandemic.

While carbon emissions dropped during the pandemic, methane emissions from livestock continued to rise. Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Retail
The inability to shop in person due to lockdowns and Covid-19 protocols forced consumers to switch to an E-commerce method of shopping, causing a 32% increase in online shopping. Due to this sudden increase in demand for online products, there was an increase in the amount of packaging waste. While purchases for essential items did occur, it was seen that 45% of shoppers made purchases that were deemed "non-essential" like clothes and fashion products. There has been a debate about whether online-shopping is more environmentally friendly than shopping in stores, and so far there is no set conclusion as they both have aspects that help and hurt the environment. The increased desire for wanting next-day shipping adds more emissions to the environment, compared to truck or ship. Online returns also end up in landfills as they cannot be resold as new merchandise.

Litter
These calculations only pertained to healthcare workers, not including mask usage by the general public. Theoretically, if every health care worker in the United States wore a new N95 mask for every patient they encountered, the total number of masks required would be approximately 7.4 billion, at a cost of $6.4 billion. This would lead to 84 million kilograms of waste. However, the same study also founded that decontaminating regular N95 masks, thereby making the masks reusable, drops environmental waste by 75% and fully reusable silicone N95 masks could offer an even greater reduction in waste... Another study estimated "that over 12 billion medical and fabric face masks are discarded monthly, giving the likelihood that an equivalent of about 105,000 tonnes of face masks per month could be disposed into the environment" in Africa alone.

Aside from the increased need for PPE, the demand for single-use plastics has been exasperated. During the pandemic alone, an additional 8 million tons of waste had been accumulated. An overwhelming portion originated from the developing world, and 72% of this waste was from Asia alone. This surplus of waste was particularly concerning for the oceans and was largely founded on beaches (or more generally, near the coast).

Specifically, in Kenya, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the amount of marine debris found on beaches with around 55.1% being a pandemic-related trash items. Although the pandemic-related trash had shown up along the beaches of Kenya, it had not made its way into the water. The reduction of litter in the ocean could be a result of the closing of beaches and lack of movement during the pandemic, so less trash was likely to end up in the ocean.

Additionally, the increase of plastic waste during the pandemic became a major environmental concern. The increased demand for single-use plastics expedited the already detrimental problem. Most of the recent plastic found in the oceans was generated from hospitals, shipping packages and from personal protection equipment. This waste was mainly accumulated on beaches and coastal sediments and was harming the oceans and their wildlife.

Additional impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were seen in Hong Kong, where disposable masks ended up along the beaches of Soko’s islands. This could be attributed to the increased production of medical products (masks and gloves) during the pandemic, which lead to a rise in unconventional disposal of these products.