ABC News
Air quality improvement during COVID-19 lockdowns less drastic than previously thought: Study
A potential silver lining of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, a drop in greenhouse gas emissions because of the massive reduction in ground and air travel during lockdowns, may not be as drastic as previously thought, new research shows. Researchers in the U.K. from the University of Birmingham looked at 11 large cities — Beijing, Wuhan, Milan, Rome, Madrid, London, Paris, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles and Delhi — and discovered that although air quality did improve, it was by less than expected. When scientists separated the effects of the lockdown restrictions from weather and business-as-usual events, they found that clearing the air of secondary pollutants such as ozone and fine particulate matter may prove more complicated than reducing precursor emissions, such as nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds that result from chemical processes in the atmosphere.