In the early days of the coronavirus panic, when the cumulative death toll of a few million people was deemed improbable, there was a silver lining; nature appeared to be healing. With humans under lockdown, many news stations have reported that animals are appearing to take back cities spaces and open waters. The lull in human activity has resulted in unusual animal sightings, an increase in endangered pink dolphins sighting in Hong Kong, or even wild goats taking over a town in Wales. 

Bringing the context closer to home, the local Singapore government has also announced a lockdown, also termed as circuit breaker (Tan, 2020). The implementation of the measure has resulted in an immediate cessation of non-essential activities. Daily commutes were reduced, jams were no longer existent even during the busiest part of the day. With these restrictions, our environment has benefited. This post will explore how the air has changed due to these restrictions 

The National Environment Agency reported that in the two weeks leading to the lockdown, the air quality has seen improvement. For instance, the average nitrogen dioxide (NO2) level in the two weeks before the circuit breaker was 17ug/m3 – down from 27ug/m3, decreasing almost 50 percent. (Li & Tartarini, 2020) . In addition to that, the average levels of PM10 and PM2.5, carbon monoxide (CO2) and Sulphur dioxide (SO2) had fallen by between 8 per cent and 43 per cent (Li & Tartarini, 2020). 

 

 

This is attributed to the restricted movement for most of the population. Workers telecommute from home and students transit into home-based learning. Industrial activities such as oil refining were also reduced. Hence, NO2 coming from refining plants and vehicles were reduced. 

With that said, is the pandemic though a disruption to our society, a blessing, a disguise to nature? As Singapore transits into an endemic phase, how will the activities of pollution differ? We shall explore that next blog post! 

 

 

References: 

Li, J., & Tartarini, F. (2020). Changes in Air Quality during the COVID-19 Lockdown in Singapore and Associations with Human Mobility Trends. Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 20(8), 1748-1758. doi:10.4209/aaqr.2020.06.0303 

Tan, C. (2020, May 05). Coronavirus: Air quality improves as Singapore slows down under circuit breaker measures. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/coronavirus-air-quality-improves-as-singapore-slows-down-under-circuit-breaker