While practicing social distancing recently at a beautiful viewpoint near my house, a lovely woman in her 70s (who I had never met before) and I had a great conversation. She was quite optimistic and said, “Earth is taking a breather.”
What she said was both poetic and profound. She is right. It must love this fresher air.
In the midst of this awful pandemic, planet earth is most definitely taking a breather. Emissions are way down as countless people worldwide curtail their international and domestic travel. Delta Airlines recently parked 600 planes for the time being. American Airlines cut 55,000 flights and parked 450 planes. And there are many others doing the same. In many countries and major cities worldwide people are no longer commuting to work as they hunker down and work from home.
Several media outlets covered the emissions reductions. This article and related photos shows what it did to emissions in China and Italy. And this one shows emissions declines in major US cities.
It might be a little too woo-woo to say earth is sending us all a message. On the other hand, maybe it is.
