Covid-19 curbs brought ‘brighter, earlier, greener spring’ to China
- Scientists, while acknowledging the devastation wrought by the pandemic, say lockdowns brought clearer skies and improved vegetation growth
- UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change co-chair says temporary cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are not enough to change the course of climate change
The country was 17 per cent greener – measured in leaf area coverage – than during the previous five years, the paper published in the journal Science Advances on August 25 found after analysing remotely sensed data.
“Reduced human activity resulting from Covid-19 restrictions contributed to a brighter, earlier, and greener 2020 spring season in China,” wrote the research team led by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research.
“On temporal scales of weeks to months, reduction in human activities can have rapid positive effects on the environment across large spatial scales,” they said, while also acknowledging the negative impact the pandemic had had on people’s well-being.