7 COVID-19: Disaster or an Opportunity …
189
7.5 Conclusion
The coronavirus pandemic has given us a temporary vision that lockdown and shutdowns can give us an environment in which we want to live. Though a stop in routine
life is not an optimum way to reduce environmental pollution, but lockdown is a
channel for improving quality of living in the coming future. This lockdown does
not decrease the fright of the COVID-19. The clear skies have shown us how quickly
we can bring down air pollution. COVID-19 has also exposed respiratory health crisis
that humans were facing due to bad quality of air before coronavirus. The lockdowns
have revealed the quality of air can be improved if emissions are controlled globally
[4]. Several health problems such as heart disease, premature deaths, asthma, respiratory problems, etc., can be minimized by reducing the concentration of air pollutants.
The continuous economic halt due to lockdown will undoubtedly be wrong as it can
further lead to social problems of poverty, unemployment, robbery, etc. So, need of
the hour is to maintain improvements achieved due to lockdowns permanently and
develop technology that is eco friendly which can help in the sustainable development as well as environmental sustainability. Some of the methods that can aid in
environmental sustainability are electrification of transport, partial lockdowns in case
of emergency situations, work from home wherever possible, use of clean energies,
conservation of forests, efficient waste management system, etc. This lockdown has
provided a baseline data for different environmental parameters which can be used
by the researchers to build a baseline data for environment which will aid in determining the contribution of environmental pollution in different sectors and can be
used by government to build a sustainable development model for the nation. The
coronavirus can be used as a learning lesson [53] for conducting more research to
analyse the affect of such lockdowns for a better future and attaining the goal of
sustainable development.
The decisions taken by governments and steps taken by all of us in coming times
after coronavirus is over will determine whether we make or break our environment.
The lockdowns have shown us that we can live without polluting our environment.
We cannot build societies where we are used to dirty environment. We cannot give
such environment to our coming generation. Now because of coronavirus, we have
learned how we can control the degradation of environment and we must put all
of these methods in use for our coming generation and to maintain environment
sustainability.
References
1. Almond D, Du X, Zhang S (2020) Ambiguous pollution response to COVID-19 in China (No.
w27086). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/papers/w27086
2. Arif M, Kumar R, Parveen S (2020) Reduction in water pollution in yamuna river due to
lockdown under COVID-19 pandemic. ChemRxiv. Preprint. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.
26434/chemrxiv.12440525.v1
189
7.5 Conclusion
The coronavirus pandemic has given us a temporary vision that lockdown and shutdowns can give us an environment in which we want to live. Though a stop in routine
life is not an optimum way to reduce environmental pollution, but lockdown is a
channel for improving quality of living in the coming future. This lockdown does
not decrease the fright of the COVID-19. The clear skies have shown us how quickly
we can bring down air pollution. COVID-19 has also exposed respiratory health crisis
that humans were facing due to bad quality of air before coronavirus. The lockdowns
have revealed the quality of air can be improved if emissions are controlled globally
[4]. Several health problems such as heart disease, premature deaths, asthma, respiratory problems, etc., can be minimized by reducing the concentration of air pollutants.
The continuous economic halt due to lockdown will undoubtedly be wrong as it can
further lead to social problems of poverty, unemployment, robbery, etc. So, need of
the hour is to maintain improvements achieved due to lockdowns permanently and
develop technology that is eco friendly which can help in the sustainable development as well as environmental sustainability. Some of the methods that can aid in
environmental sustainability are electrification of transport, partial lockdowns in case
of emergency situations, work from home wherever possible, use of clean energies,
conservation of forests, efficient waste management system, etc. This lockdown has
provided a baseline data for different environmental parameters which can be used
by the researchers to build a baseline data for environment which will aid in determining the contribution of environmental pollution in different sectors and can be
used by government to build a sustainable development model for the nation. The
coronavirus can be used as a learning lesson [53] for conducting more research to
analyse the affect of such lockdowns for a better future and attaining the goal of
sustainable development.
The decisions taken by governments and steps taken by all of us in coming times
after coronavirus is over will determine whether we make or break our environment.
The lockdowns have shown us that we can live without polluting our environment.
We cannot build societies where we are used to dirty environment. We cannot give
such environment to our coming generation. Now because of coronavirus, we have
learned how we can control the degradation of environment and we must put all
of these methods in use for our coming generation and to maintain environment
sustainability.
References
1. Almond D, Du X, Zhang S (2020) Ambiguous pollution response to COVID-19 in China (No.
w27086). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/papers/w27086
2. Arif M, Kumar R, Parveen S (2020) Reduction in water pollution in yamuna river due to
lockdown under COVID-19 pandemic. ChemRxiv. Preprint. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.
26434/chemrxiv.12440525.v1