A new report said there is a 75 percent chance that 2020 will be the hottest year ever recorded, despite the positive unintended consequences brought by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The Daily Mail said, "climate scientists predict temperatures will continue to rise because of how much cumulative greenhouse gases are already in the atmosphere." NOAA claimed even if air pollution has gone down globally, 2020 will still rank fifth if it does not surpass the hottest year on record, which was in 2016.
Inevitably hot
Climate scientist Karsten Haustein from the University of Oxford told the Guardian, "The emissions will go down this year, but the concentrations keep on rising. We are very unlikely to be able to notice any slowdown in the built-up of atmospheric GHG levels."
GHG stands for Greenhouse Gases, which has decreased because of COVID-19. The Daily Mail said, "The world has seen an average of a six percent drop in greenhouse gases amid the coronavirus pandemic due to lockdowns and industry shutdowns."
The decrease is not enough to stop climate change, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It will be temporary because emissions will return to normal once the industries open and the global economy recovers.
COVID-19 may have spread to 3.13 million people and claimed over 218,000 lives, according to Google, but it has caused unintended consequences.
A better world in some aspects
In a report from Vogue, levels of nitrogen dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels like gas were down by 30% in China. It was so dramatic that an air quality researcher from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard space flight center told MSN, "This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event."
There were also minimal pollutants in Los Angeles, California. Vogue said, "notorious smog has lifted, giving way to clear blue skies and better air quality than the city has experienced in almost 40 years." Carbon monoxide emissions in New York are down by 50%."
Satellite images taken by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission reveal "a sharp decline in air pollution across Europe - particularly in Rome and the Po Valley in northern Italy." Italy only declared a nationwide lockdown on March 9, almost two months ago. The famous Venice canals have even seen the "return" of marine life because it is virtually empty because of the countrywide lockdown.
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Despite pollution dropping in various parts of the world because of the pandemic, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York said 2020 has a 60 percent chance of overtaking 2016 for the hottest year ever.
The Daily Mail said, "climate scientists agree the warming trend in recent years could lead to environmental catastrophe."
Antonio Guterres from the United Nations said GHG concentrations have been at its highest in three million years. "Ocean heat is at a record level, with temperatures rising at the equivalent of five Hiroshima bombs a second," he added.
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