COVID-19 and Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation: Modeling the Impact on Environmental Sustainability and Policies

The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled countries worldwide to enforce stringent measures to maintain social distancing, by locking down populations and restricting all kinds of transport. Besides their impact on the virus, these dramatic changes may also have positively contributed to a sustainable environment. The study aims to measure the effect of COVID-19 on environmental sustainability by employing the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The study is based on the daily data of COVID-19 confirmed cases; confirmed deaths; manually generated lockdown data by the indexing method; and NO2, NH3, SO2, and CO levels from March 3, 2020, to July 27, 2021. This research study investigates the long- and short-term relationship between COVID-19 and the aforementioned greenhouse gases. The findings suggest conclusively that NO2, SO2, and CO declined during the COVID-19 period in India because these gases are anthropologically emitted by transport, industries, and fossil fuel burning. On the other hand, the evolving NH3 is not related to COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths but is impacted by lockdown because ammonia emission is directly related to agricultural activities. Therefore, a decline in pollutants such as greenhouse gases during the COVID-19 period until July 2021 was observed. This means the prioritized control of human activities can be helpful to enhance the quality of the environment.

Interrelationship between Forests and Climate Change : A Review

Climate change and forests are intrinsically linked and better forest management has key role to play in dealing with climate change. Forests influence atmospheric conditions causing rain and control temperature and provide clean air. They take in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and provide oxygen. They protect soil from erosion and control floods. They are the house to many living organisms (macro and micro). A large number of people rely on forests for their livelihood. They serve as carbon sinks and are recognized as the principal contributor to climate change adaptation and mitigation. The main drivers of climate change are anthropogenic activities such as land-use change, over exploitation of forest resources, fossil fuel burning and industrial processes. The present review is aimed at providing the impacts of climate change on forests and the role of forests in climate change mitigation and adaptation particularly in Indian context.

Quantifying memory and persistence in the atmosphere–land/ocean carbon system

Here we interpret carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel burning and land use as a global stress-strain experiment. We use the idea of a Maxwell body consisting of elastic and damping (viscous) elements to reflect the overall behaviour of the atmosphere–land/ocean system in response to the continued increase of CO2 emissions between 1850 and 2015. From the standpoint of a global observer, we see that as a consequence of the increase, the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere increases (rather quickly). Concomitantly, the atmosphere warms and expands, while part of the carbon is locked away (rather slowly) in land and oceans, likewise under the influence of global warming. It is not known how reversible and how much out of sync the latter process is in relation to the former. All we know is that the slower process remembers the influence of the faster one which runs ahead. Here we ask three (nontrivial) questions: (1) Can this global-scale memory–Earth’s memory–be quantified? (2) Is Earth’s memory a buffer which is negligently exploited; and in the case that it is even a limited buffer, what is the degree of exploitation? And (3) does Earth’s memory allow its persistence (path dependency) to be quantified? To the best of our knowledge, the answers to these questions are pending. We go beyond textbook knowledge by introducing three parameters that characterise the system: delay time, memory, and persistence. The three parameters depend, ceteris paribus, solely on the system’s characteristic viscoelastic behaviour and allow deeper insights into that system. We find that since 1850, the atmosphere–land/ocean system has been trapped progressively in terms of persistence (i.e., it will become progressively more difficult to strain-relax the system), while its ability to build up memory has been reduced. The ability of a system to build up memory effectively can be understood as its ability to respond still within its natural regime; or, if the build-up of memory is limited, as a measure for system failures globally in the future. Approximately 60 % of Earth’s memory had already been exploited by humankind prior to 1959. We expect system failures globally well before 2050 if the current trend in emissions is not reversed immediately and sustainably.

The effect of COVID-19 on the air pollution in urban areas of Pakistan

Background: The impacts of lockdown on air pollution have been examined in various parts of the world. The concentration of main air pollutants has been decreased owing to a decline in anthropogenic activities like fossil fuel burning, etc. The main aim of this research was to assess the impacts of lockdown on air pollution of the main urban areas of Pakistan. Methods: The present study was conducted to assess the air quality index (AQI) of the main urban areas of Pakistan based on the pre- and post-lockdown effects and mortality rate due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Hotspot analysis was conducted to assess the most vulnerable spots at the country level. Results: The AQI greatly improved in all the main cities of Pakistan which ranges from 51 to 87. The pre- and post-lockdown AQI were categorized from unhealthy for sensitive groups to hazardous and moderate, respectively. There are noticeable hotspots in the vicinity of Lahore and Karachi. The level of nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ) dropped 45%, 49%, 20%, 35%, and 56% in Peshawar, Lahore, Multan, Karachi, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi, respectively. Conclusion: Nature healed due to lockdown, which is the only good face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The temporary lockdown greatly improved air quality which may stimulate the policymakers, researchers, and governments for the smart use of resources to minimize emissions to heal the nature. The present study also suggests the application of hotspot analysis in different contexts for the evidence-based care services decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Global-scale constraints on light-absorbing anthropogenic iron oxide aerosols

Anthropogenic iron oxide aerosols (FeOx) have been identified as a climatically significant atmospheric light absorber, and as a contributor of free iron to the oceans. Here we provide global-scale constraints on their atmospheric abundance with measurements over the remote Pacific and Atlantic Oceans from aircraft campaigns spanning 10 years. We find FeOx-like aerosols are transported far from source regions with similar efficiency as black carbon particles. Strong contrast in concentrations was observed between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere Pacific. We provide observational constraints in remote regions on the ambient ratios of FeOx relative to BC from fossil fuel burning. Comparison with a global aerosol model tuned to recent observations in East-Asian source regions confirm an upward revision of emissions based on model/observation comparison over the Pacific receptor region. We find that anthropogenic FeOx-like particles generate global-scale shortwave atmospheric heating 0.3–26% of that of black carbon in remote regions where concentrations of both aerosols are very low.

Space-based detection of CO2 emission reductions due to COVID-19 at Europe's largest fossil fuel power plant and implications for CO2 emission monitoring

<p>In 2020, many countries implemented lockdowns to control the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), leading to reported decreases in anthropogenic CO<sub>2</sub> emissions based on bottom-up estimates. Some studies reported that the resulting atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> changes were below the detection limit of current observing systems on the ground or in space. We quantify CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from Europe’s largest fossil fuel burning power plant before and during lockdown using space-based CO<sub>2</sub> observations from NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) 2 and 3 missions. The results show clear emission reductions of >20% in April 2020, demonstrating the ability of space-based CO<sub>2</sub> observations to quantify emission reductions at the facility level. This research reinforces the value of space-based CO<sub>2</sub> data for verifying future CO<sub>2</sub> emission reductions expected from climate change mitigation policies and the importance of monitoring emissions at sub-national scales.</p>

Disposing of CO2 in basaltic rocks: opportunities to upscale storage and co-locate sites with offshore renewable (wind) power

<p>Continued fossil fuel burning is likely to increase CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere to previously unknown levels and emissions will continue to outpace uptake, unless limiting action is taken. This paper presents new approaches to mitigate emissions and drawdown atmospheric CO2 , that is, new combinations of developing and existing technologies in offshore settings. We consider the permanent and safe geological storage of carbon dioxide (CCS) through in situ carbon mineralization and the potential for CO2  uptake and disposal in offshore basalt formations. The CCS concept in general aims to separate CO2 from industrial emissions, and/or directly remove it from the air, and permanently store it underground. Integrating these technologies with renewable (wind) energy in offshore settings may offer a scalable, long-term climate mitigation choice that warrants early consideration. Current studies of co-located opportunities and new offshore demonstration projects are considered. </p><p> </p>

Impacts of Changes in Atmospheric O2 on Human Physiology. Is There a Basis for Concern?

Concern is often voiced over the ongoing loss of atmospheric O2. This loss, which is caused by fossil-fuel burning but also influenced by other processes, is likely to continue at least for the next few centuries. We argue that this loss is quite well understood, and the eventual decrease is bounded by the fossil-fuel resource base. Because the atmospheric O2 reservoir is so large, the predicted relative drop in O2 is very small even for extreme scenarios of future fossil-fuel usage which produce increases in atmospheric CO2 sufficient to cause catastrophic climate changes. At sea level, the ultimate drop in oxygen partial pressure will be less than 2.5 mm Hg out of a baseline of 159 mmHg. The drop by year 2300 is likely to be between 0.5 and 1.3 mmHg. The implications for normal human health is negligible because respiratory O2 consumption in healthy individuals is only weakly dependent on ambient partial pressure, especially at sea level. The impacts on top athlete performance, on disease, on reproduction, and on cognition, will also be very small. For people living at higher elevations, the implications of this loss will be even smaller, because of a counteracting increase in barometric pressure at higher elevations due to global warming.

One stone two birds: a sinter-resistant TiO2 nanofiber-based unbroken mat enables PMs capture and in situ elimination

Airborne particulate matter (PM) primarily from fossil fuel burning is an increasingly global issue. In this work, an intrinsically fragile TiO2 nanofibrous mat was facilely engineered with good structural integrity,...

How Can India Achieve Sustainable Transportation Goals Through Electrification?

Air pollution has led to global temperature increases and health hazards. Emission reduction is a global mission, and countries worldwide are working towards this goal. Transportation network electrification is a possible solution. Electrifying only transit systems will not have much impact without energy policy evolution and renewable source share enhancement. Since transportation needs rise with increasing population, emission intensity reduction steps should be implemented soon to affect global emission reduction. This work proposes reducing the share of vehicles with high per-passenger emissions and replacing them with mass transit systems under a generation scenario. It primarily establishes emission trends under the current vehicle scenario with only fossil fuel-burning vehicles and electric vehicle (EV) scenarios. It also considers different fuel mixes and finally compares all vehicle and fuel mix combinations. Results reveal that the proposed transport and fuel mix options help to reach the target set by India under the Paris Agreement.