Pollution is something that we have been hearing about for a long time, but in the past few years it has gotten worse. According to the State of air, 40% of Americans are living in a place with unhealthy levels of particle pollution. All this pollution can come from driving your vehicle, industries, wildfires, etc. One of my thoughts on pollution is how it reacted to Covid. Because first I think about how everyone needed to stay in their houses, this means you can’t go to your work, you don’t use your car, some industries stop working and flights decrease, all of these were things that generated pollution. This made that in some cities the air quality improved.
My second thought was that we had to add something else to our everyday routine if we wanted to go outside and what I’m talking about is a mask. Millions of people started using masks, but specifically disposable face masks, which means you use it for a day or for some hours and you throw it away. Imagine all the pollution masks have made. A study made by OceansAsia estimated that over 1.5 billion masks are believed to be in the ocean. Also with all the pandemic situation we needed to use way more medical stuff than we were using in the past. All this medical stuff generates more trash which at the end would create more pollution. I think Covid increased pollution more than decreased it.
Some ways that you can help the planet are by getting solar panels. The only problem with this is that not everyone can get them because they are expensive, you can also stop using plastic bags and replace them with cloth bags or tote bags, these are an easy way to stop the use of plastic. Another way is no more plastic straws. I think that places that are specifically on the coasts are starting to change this and try something more ecologic like paper or bamboo. Straws were usually found in the ocean and in animals which sometimes caused their death, this caused governments to take action on this, in some cities plastic straws are banned such as Washington, Miami and Malibu. I think governments should give more importance on making small changes that can give big results. I think they need to promote more about the importance of this, and how we are going to kill our planet if we continue like this.
Sources:
https://www.lung.org/research/sota/key-findings
Do you think covid helped to reduce or increase pollution?
Do you think plastic bags should be banned?
Do you think the government should do more initiatives to help reduce pollution?
Replies
I agree staying at home because of covid regulations did help with our environment and studies showed that in China, one of the most air polluted countries in the world with a decrease in air particles. The governments around the world do need to take more steps in helping prevent more pollution with having better standards.
i have a feeling that covid- 19 decresed polution because we stayed in our houses most of the time because everything was shut down
i feel that plastic bags should be banned because people dont use them the right way
i feel the government should be doing more to reduce polution.
I agree with you about people not using plastic bags correctly. I think they don't care how much they used, and sometimes they could use a smaller amount. I also think the government should do more initiatives to reduce pollution.
I think that covid decreased overall pollution because nobody was driving or flying. Transportation is a huge factor in pollution, so I think that overpowered the fact that we were throwing away so many masks. Covid did increase the amount of waste but decreased the amount of transportation.
I can concur that if our country/ world leaders take pollution as lightly as they have been then were doomed but if we can change our ways then we'll be alright.
I feel that covid decreased pollution because we weren't going oustside as much due to quarantine. I don't think plastic bag should be banned I just think people should do better to take care of their trash. I also think the government should do more to reuce pollution by using things like solar panels.
I think people should think more when they are using a plastic bag because sometimes they waste plastic bags on things they don't really need. I also agree with you that the government could do more initiatives.
I agree on plastic bags not being banned because what would you replace them with? Paper bags could be just as bad because we would have to resort to cutting trees for that or finding some new material to make them.
I think covid increase pollution, because of all the masks. Many people are throwing their masks on streets or wherever. I dont think yhat plastic bags should be banned, if the people would not throwing those in oceans or would recycle those more.
I also think covid increase pollution because of all the masks. Sometimes you can see masks on the floor. I think when you use a plastic bag you should think if you really need it because I feel sometimes you just waste them.
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