I find it interesting how people find it disgusting when someone litters, or they don't recycle, yet applaud those who are well travelled.

Carbon emissions are real and there should be more consideration for one's carbon footprint, in ALL areas.

When people talk about traveling overseas for fun, a dozen times a year, my inclination is not to congratulate them but to say "shame on you."

I very recently saw a map of the carbon reduction surrounding Milan, Italy because of the coronavirus. It was significant. Maybe it's of note that when I went to college there way, way, way back in 1990 the government forced a shutdown of car traffic except for buses and taxis for the purpose of examining the pollution. I remember something similar in Florence because (this is gross) our mucus was no longer black from exhaust. You have to wonder if the planet is saving itself by shutting us down.

It takes catastrophic events for humans to deviate from their detrimental patterns and they will never change voluntarily .

Perhaps the virus is nature’s way of intervening to protect itself from the harm we are causing the planet!

It is visible from the ISS and with the naked eye in many places already. For instance residents of Venice have noticed the water in the canals have cleared up.

I HOPE this event allows people to see what WE ALL DO, by living in the way we do.
BUT I have no actual expectation of such, as I grasp we are savage primates with brutal weapons and destructive tools, and we tend toward the ME, not the WE.

The effects appear to be localized. During the quarantine in Wuhan, a marked decrease in air pollution (what we used to call smog) was observed there. I don't know where Wuhan is today, but in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live, the air quality is measured daily, and a significant decrease in hydrocarbons has been measured since the stay-at-home order. That said, it would likely take many years of this apparent reversal in emissions to make a dent in the ongoing atmospheric carbon accumulation.

The same thing happened after 911. Scientist realized that with all airline traffic shut down it was a great time to do certain experiments. PBS did a show on this and some findings were extraordinary.

This is the way it should be all the time. Some travel and greenhouse production could be had but not at our overly inflated numbers.

A significant difference [cnbc.com]

There was a pollution map on the news when the PRC shut down showing before & after. I am sure children were asking what those twinkling spots are in the sky.

On a normal day (or night) in London I could look up and count between half a dozen and a dozen aircraft in sight at any one time. Now, I see about one every fifteen minutes. The sky even feels bluer without all the contrails and it feels like there are more stars, even with all the regular light pollution.

That is an interesting question and the data from this time may make for an interesting data set and establishment of a base line for the future.

[google.com]

[google.com]

[google.com]

Comparison photos have shown how clean the air’s become over locked down metropolitan areas.. Airlines, cruise ships, millions of vehicles off the highways as people telecommute… And sadly, every less human is likely a small breath for nature

None. The militaries do most of the polluting, especially the U.S. military, and they are not taking a break at all.

Nice thought, though.

[newsweek.com]

Sorry to say, it's not going to last. Sad, very, very sad.

I heard somewhere, can't remember where, that it has put us back to where we were 50 years ago. Like I said I don't have anything to back that up but wouldn't it be great if that were true? But also take into account that we are not going back to 'normal' any time soon and with months a probability, maybe 50 years doesn't seem so impossible.

The skies over central Arizona are sure in a bluer state these past few days. I suppose that Californians are not driving much is the difference.

A couple weeks ago I knew the time of the flights going overhead. And there were many. Now I rarely see a plane.

here is an irony, we have our HOAX king sacrificing millions of humans to fight off climate change, using one HOAX to defeat another HOAX !!!!!

That's pretty logical. We are not burning as much gas and oil. Less co2 in the atmosphere. Hope it helps.

Definitely.

Hopefully enough for a breather

pretty sure all the carbon hoo-ha is to cover all the methane release?

It's funny that people blame each other for government pollution numbers that never implicate, you know, governments and their militaries. But it is well known that governments are the actual largest polluters on the planet, by far. It's not even close.

The US military pollutes as much as the bottom 150 countries or so, combined.

People have not been at work, but they have not been at home, either. The freeways and stores have been packed every day here. Plus, how are people buying up all the water, rice and toilet paper if they're sitting at home?

Yes, the planet is getting a breather but I don't things will get back to previous CO2 emissions. The reduction sill won't be enough to reduce global climate change/rising temperatures.