Apr 22, 2020
By Jane Brown
Today, April 22nd, is Earth Day. In fact, it’s the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, only this year it’s being marked during the COVID-19 pandemic and a global shutdown.
Economic impact aside, the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders have had a remarkably positive impact on the planet because of human inactivity.
Since everyone is staying home and there are far fewer drivers, air pollution is down significantly in some of the world’s heavily populated areas including China and India.
Here in Toronto, Mayor John Tory said on Earth Day, he hopes our sensitivity continues to look after the planet.
“There’s just a lot of things we can be doing in terms of our use of energy, our use of cars. There’s a lot of car usage that’s down right now because people have no place to go, and the air quality has improved,” Tory mused to CP24, “We’ve become very sensitive to physical distancing, something three months ago we’d never heard of. And I just hope that the concepts that relate to a cleaner, greener and better planet are also in people’s minds all of the time.”
For more on how to take part in virtual earth day celebrations, click here.