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| Fig. 1: Business closure sign. (Source: Wikimedia Commons.) |
When people think back on 2020, they primarily will think of it as the year of COVID. The year businesses closed (see Fig. 1) people were forced to stay at home, and social gatherings were put to a halt. The way the world functioned changed dramatically since the onset of the pandemic. Much of the world will remember it as a time of sadness, solitary, and anxiety, as there were no clear answers as to what tomorrow would look like. But there was another aspect of the pandemic many don't talk about, the potentially positive one. From an environmental standpoint, the pandemic brought to light some beneficial changes in the world, specifically a decrease in global carbon emissions.
Carbon Dioxide is inherently not a toxic molecule. On the contrary CO2 is essential for life on Earth. However, the increase of atmospheric CO2 concentration has dramatic impacts on the radiation balance of the atmosphere. The greenhouse effect refers to the gases in the atmosphere that trap heat. They let sunlight pass through the atmosphere, but prevent the heat that the sunlight brings from leaving the atmosphere. Those gases are currently out of balance, and continue to move toward dangerous levels as humans release them into the air by burning fossil fuels and consuming energy. Carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane have all dramatically increased in the atmosphere and many believe they are to blame for the rise in global temperatures since the 1950s. Carbon dioxide is considered as the most dangerous type gas emissions which lead to the highest risk to the environment. [1] Global warming poses a threat to climate systems and endangers human health because it jeopardizes the world's air, water, and food.
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| Fig. 2: World energy consumption has drastic drop in 2020. [2] (Courtesy of British Petroleum) |
In order for the safety of Earth years down the line, global warming has to be mitigated, but it can only be mitigated with global action. Every sector of the global economy, from manufacturing to agriculture to transportation to power production, contributes greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. There are organizations and countries hoping to move the world toward a time where there are zero global carbon emissions. The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 aims to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2°C above preindustrial levels. [3] To reduce the high risk of drastic increases in global temperature, global action to reduce emissions throughout the world needs to take place. The hardest question cant be answered simply, but is often questioned: how is the world expected to do that?
The world was engulfed last year in a humanitarian tragedy. Close to four million people were reported to have died due to COVID-19. The economy was hurt as well. The Global GDP fell by over 3.5% in 2020, the largest recession since the Great Depression. [2] Businesses were closed and millions lost their jobs. Around 100 million people were pushed into poverty as a result of the pandemic. For energy however, 2020 was a year unlike any other. World energy demand is estimated to have fallen by 4.5% and global carbon emissions from energy use by 6.3%. [2] As we see in Fig. 2, these falls were huge and headline-worthy as they were the largest falls since WWII and the first decline in energy consumption since 2009. In addition carbon emission levels fell to numbers last seen in 2011. [2]
Curbing CO2 emissions and putting an end to global warming is a goal that the world has made. In order for the world to be on track to meet the Paris climate goals, the world needs to average the same rate of decline in carbon emissions as last year for the next 30 years. Countries are trying to take steps forward, but the biggest success story the world has had to reduce CO2 emissions has been paid for by millions of peoples lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. If that's what's needed to truly reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption in the world, I don't think that it's a worthwhile solution to the problem. Until we find a way to reduce emissions without causing ridiculous amounts of disruption and damage to everyday life, global warming will continue to be a prominent problem in the world.
© Lexie Hull. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] P. Setyono, B. Dan and W. Himawan, "Effects of Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming on Environment and Climatic Conditions of Boyolali, Central Java Indonesia," J Climatol. Weather Forecast. 6, 236 (2018).
[2] "BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2021," British Petroleum, June 2021.
[3] "Adoption of the Paris Agreement," United Nations, 12 Dec 15.
