Environmental impacts of COVID-19: Italy

COVID-19 has caused destruction in the daily lives of Italian people but is now starting to create positive effects in our environment. As of now, COVID-19 has become a pandemic with no vaccine that has taken the lives of many with no stop in sight. While most people are quarantined inside away from nature, the environment has started to change positively from this pandemic. 

In Italy, there has already been a notice in better air quality due to the lack of nitrogen dioxide emissions. This cleaner air is seen in the highly industrial areas of the country where most planes and vehicles would be. Not only is social distancing the reason that there is a lack of NO2 but this is also an effect of the recession. Many companies can’t support their use of pieces of machinery and vehicles that emit NO2. Minnesota has also seen this effect. Our reduction in NO2 has led to clearer blue skies and an increase in our air quality as well.

  One of the most trending examples of COVID-19’s effect is the clear water in the Venice canals. With the lack of boat traffic, the sediments in the water haven’t been disturbed. This isn’t necessarily an improvement in the water quality but it is a new phenomenon for the people of Venice. Although the clear water doesn’t prove it, there is an improvement in water quality in some regions of Italy. Without tourism, the sewage discharge into the canals is decreasing leaving the water more purified than usual. So far in Minnesota, the land of ten-thousand lakes, we haven’t seen any changes in our water.

The Earth is visibly healing itself from damage during this period of social distancing. As this is only a belief, some think that this pandemic was a force of mother nature to heal her planet and as a punishment to us for harming it in the first place. After this pandemic, people will return to their usual habits, and we should keep in mind how the environment improved when people were inside. The goal would be to find a balance between our own luxuries and pleasures and the effect they have on our environment.