AS VIRUS SHUTS DOWN CITIES IN EUROPE, POLLUTION DROPS
The European Union’s space agency’s earth-
observation satellites have detected a significant
reduction in the pollutant nitrogen dioxide,
a byproduct of the use of diesel motors and
other human activities, in northern Italy as the
advance of the COVID-19 has led to drastic
measures curtailing ordinary life.
The agency’s Copernicus Atmosphere
Monitoring Service reported this week that
with the “abrupt changes in activity levels” in
northern Italy, it has tracked a “reduction trend”
of nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, for the last four to
five weeks.
So far, Italy has been the hardest hit country
in Europe by the new coronavirus, and the
government has implemented a wide lockdown,
encouraging its 62 million people to stay home
unless it’s absolutely necessary to go out.