kovid 19 has changed the way we live
lockdowns mean people around the world
have taken fewer car journeys flights
have been grounded
and industry has shut down and you can
see the difference that's made to air
quality in some of the most
polluted cities but what about something
you can't see
carbon dioxide one of the key greenhouse
gases responsible for
climate change as the pandemics spread
around the globe
co2 emissions did fall as countries went
into lockdowns
the falls in emissions have been bigger
than in any past economic slowdown
including during the second world war
this may sound like good news for our
climate
but it's not that simple think of carbon
emissions
like the taps filling a bathtub this
year
those taps have been turned down the
water or the co2
is flowing a bit more slowly but the
bath
is still filling up in fact on the 1st
of june 2020 while many countries were
in lockdowns
the concentration of co2 in the
atmosphere reached its highest level in
human history
and quite possibly the highest in 3
million years so
our carbon bathtub is pretty full and we
can't just simply
pull out the plug carbon dioxide
is absorbed by the plants and the oceans
like
natural sponges but this takes time
co2 emitted today will still be in the
atmosphere in hundreds of years
so there'd need to be a long-term drop
in carbon dioxide output
to make a real difference to the climate
crisis
and the question is what will the
recovery from the pandemic
look like we've already seen that as
countries economies open up again
emissions also return to their upward
trend
for them to continue slowing down some
of the changes the pandemics forced us
to make to work
industry and travel would have to become
more permanent
even while the world's attention has
been focused on coronavirus the effects
of climate change have continued
20 2020 is set to end up as one of the
warmest years
on record in the fight to tackle the
climate crisis
it'll be up to governments and societies
to decide whether the drop in co2
emissions caused by the pandemic is the
new
normal or just a drop in the ocean
you