Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the measure of carbon dioxide (CO2) that humans produce has been decreasing by 17 percent since April, correlated to the daily average for 2019. It is based on the estimates published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The number of planet-heating pollution is the same as what was produced in 2006, revealing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that have matured for the last 14 years. The majority of the reduction of CO2 originated from manufacturing, power generation, transportation and shipping. The aviation industry, however, is the most affected among the industries, shrinking the carbon footprint by 60 percent.

But even if there is a cut of greenhouse gas emissions, scientists and environmentalists are not buoyant about it. Shutting down of businesses resulted in people staying home to evade the spreading of the coronavirus, which made the gas plunge dramatically but it is not enough to break the effect of climate change. According to study by authors and public health experts, if restrictions are still implemented, there could be up to seven percent drop, and forecasts an earlier calculation of approximately eight percent drop this year from the International Energy Agency. Sean Sublette, a meteorologist at the nonprofit news organization Climate Central, said, “Eight percent is not an awful lot in the grand scheme of things”. Carbon monoxide adds to the atmosphere and can last for hundreds or thousands of years. “It’s like a bathtub and you’ve had the spigot on full blast for a while, and you turn it back 10 percent, but you’re still filling the bathtub,” he added. If the governments hold their action to climate change during or after the pandemic, this could bring to a climate crisis that is worse than what was foresaw before COVID-19.