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Author Topic: Environmental/Climate impact from covid pandemic: the positives and negatives  (Read 612 times)

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Masked Man

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Just some of Covid's environmental/climate impact: positives and negatives:

SUMMARY -Researchers from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) recently published a comprehensive, systematic picture of the pandemic’s impacts – both positive and negative – on environmental pollution and carbon emissions on different continents.
A team, led by Dr Pow Seng Yap from XJTLU’s Department of Civil Engineering, analysed data from at least 25 countries published in more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and publications that focused on variations of environmental impacts on those countries--Link here:

https://www.xjtlu.edu.cn/en/news/2022/01/covids-environmental-impact-positives-and-negatives

The Masked Man's afterthought for what it's worth:

Just some of my own perspectives on the matter.. You know some people complain about citywide lockdowns, travel restrictions and strict safety measures.
I'm of a different mind. I like it! I say take advantage of it! People must be out of their minds not to want to make it so they can stay at home .. why would anybody in their right mind want to travel while there's a new variant or disease in the making? Who can handle the stress of visiting relatives during a pandemic risking disease? Are strict safety measures that bad? Is it so bad to wash our hands or wear masks for our elders and for ourselves? My philosophy is to make it so I can stay at home , work remotely..homeschool the kids... become more self sufficient.. sit on couch more and watch tv more ..its the perfect time to do so since in this day and age everybody owning computers and being able to communicate so well and having online abilities has never made it more possible. I just think personally that its better to be like a chameleon and change colors when necessary to survive and so I find it intriguing to think maybe diseases like covid are meant to slow us down and make us adopt different lifestyle than we might not have been raised to pursue...

This phenomena on how the air or environment  gets cleaner the more people caught covid and slowed down their way of living excites me.  I can't help but believe we need more bicycles in the world, more birds flying and less jumbo jets. I just like the idea that governments or even people themselves might create stimulus or encourage one another to adapt the workplace so people can stay at home or work remotely from home. This fascinates me because I feel the human race needs to stop racing, change their behavior, and adopt new customs and ways of living with less travel and less commuting so the planet doesn't get destroyed by our machines mostly. I like quality of life not quantity and I feel the world is spinning too fast and that everybody needs to slow down!

Keep this to yourself,..lol.. between you and me, I know there's a scientific explanation as to where covid originates and I accept that  but aside from this often I also entertain and fantasize on a spiritual level that covid and diseases could be here season to season from Mother Nature to protect her and save the planet by forcing people to change their ways and behave differently.
Those are just my inner thoughts and how I deal with thinking about why on earth do horrible diseases even possibly exist on earth..these diseases are terrifying to me to even think about..its hard to believe such hell on earth can even exist and what purpose these diseases like covid are even here for...  I am sure everybody handles issues in regards to covid, human suffering and death of loved ones in their own special way so Take my ideas as you wish, nevertheless there are no doubts about this: that covid and a multitude of other diseases are here for now slowing us down and challenging us.


Feel free to reply here and post other studies that involve how the environment can become a better place because of the impact covid and other diseases have on people's behavior.

Thank you,
The Masked Man!
« Last Edit: September 25, 2024, 04:17:16 am by Masked Man »
Masked Man

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Steve

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It is important to remember that the ideal situation is with efficiency of travel, not merely the absence of travel.

Efficiency is not relegated to one aspect of travel, such as fuel efficiency or amount of materials moved. Efficiency must be gauged in all aspects including the carbon footprint of how the vehicle was created, the amount of pollution caused by the vehicle during normal operation & the carbon footprint for creating the energy needed for the vehicle to operate.

The Covid pandemic has forced society, at least for a brief while, in imagining an otherwise unthinkable scenario in terms of travel efficiency on a macro level. It demonstrated that environmental benefits from reduced travel could be witnessed at significant levels and in the short-term.

Should society desire it (and it should), we should take that lesson and expand upon it to its reasonable conclusions.

Mass transit is an inescapable extension of the lesson learned from the initial phase of the Covid pandemic. Reducing motorized individual transportation, regardless of energy source, should be a priority of all civilizations. Reduction is not elimination; We must be pragmatic in our goals to be more efficient.

An increase in non-motorized transportation (ie bicycles, tricycles, and the like) is another desirable goal. It is important to note that society needs to be attentive in how such modes of transportation are constructed; Construction with exotic materials inevitably creates a larger carbon footprint.

Our sources of energy should be varied. While it would be highly desirable to eliminate coal, petroleum & natural gas, such an objective is not feasible in the short term. What is more pragmatic would be significant reductions of these types of energy sources.

Nuclear energy must be part of our carbon footprint reduction plan. Although politically undesirable, we must acknowledge that modern nuclear power plants are far safer and efficient than plants constructed in the 1970s and 1980s. Granted, nuclear energy should not dominate our energy resource plan but we must be willing to commit to it if we are serious in lowering our carbon footprint. As much as solar & wind would benefit us, they are still too inefficient to power our nation alone.

We must also address hydro-electric. This form of energy needs to be reduced as our planet now has so many hydro-electric dams that it has affected the spin of our planet through the unnatural displacement of water. Hydro-electric power is not as ecologically-friendly as once presumed and we must acknowledge this fact.

Although I am hopeful that society will eventually arrive at more efficient travel, it will likely not occur until more calamities happen. The arc of our progress always tends to be that society needs great crises before significant action of any kind occurs.

Masked Man

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Alas, If only our Vehicles and travels were like the Amish and old order Mennonites… If only only we travelled by horse buggy … then we would be using our animal vehicles/horse waste as manure for to spread on our garden. That would be efficient… such horse drawn travels would contribute to putting tasty food on our table. Then again, the flatulence of farm animals is also known to be bad for the ozone layer.. lol
its kind of funny to think about carbon hoof prints versus carbon tire prints but sometimes I really do wonder about people reaching out to alternate ways of living…
..from time there do seem to those calamities occurring such as when stores run out stock or when trade from other countries get delayed.. instances of that has occurred during this pandemic… if gasoline prices changed overnight it would force many people to change many plans.. of course I am skeptical people would adopt more frugal or self sufficient lifestyle or ways of life unless there was a crisis.
That being said perhaps the pandemic has changed a lot more than I see..  Many more  People are buying more in bulk .. many towns have dropped off the map in a short period of time… I never would have dreamed California would be the way it is now ...  there’s a handful of cities which seem to be barren or full of homeless.. I can’t help but think that the covid pandemic was the last straw that broke the camel or rather the  town’s back that succumbed to desolation. It’s pretty scary to see these ghost towns.
Anyway we are talking environment here so Ill try to stay focused on that… .. I’m just dreaming here but I sort of envision success for a quasi- off grid family that embraces some of today’s technology while also using some old school ways of living not much different than the old order mennonites or pioneers used. I just feel a family that can home school their kid, and take advantage of a garden and can somehow work remotely from their home and take advantage of online computer( I consider  the computer to be like the Swiss Army knife  of the brain) might pull off surviving these modern times or I feel families might best benefit from trying to build a somewhat self sufficient lifestyle that combines today’s technology with some of the old ways of life that require hand tools , gardens and more stay at home domestic activities. All this is probably easier  said than done. Unfortunately what appears to be happening to me is gulf between the rich and poor..
Sometimes I have listened to online stories from survivors of the depression eras and the One thing that seemed to be the redeeming quality or rather the one thing that seemed to help someone in the depression era was if they simply had a skill or talent or craft then they were safe because they could give something to others and therefore trade with one another locally. In other words if you had a skill you could trade with others locally to survive. I guess there’s less of a carbon footprint when people do things more locally.
« Last Edit: September 27, 2024, 03:02:00 am by Masked Man »
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Masked Man

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Moon's Surface Cooled Down During Strict Covid-19 Lockdown: Study | Gravitas | WION

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ldB4nN0vj4k
« Last Edit: October 02, 2024, 02:16:23 pm by Masked Man »
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