How Air Pollution Exacerbates Covid-19



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Some cities have hatched plans to avoid this. Milan, which is in Italy’s worst-hit Lombardy region, plans to exit the blockade with cleaner transportation options. “The goal is to ensure that the virus spreads containment through soft and sustainable mobility solutions,” said Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala. “It is key that [lifting the lockdown] it does not result in excessive use of private cars, with the consequent increase in air pollution. “

To discourage people from getting in their cars, Milan will create 35 km of new bike lanes to make transport by bicycle and scooter more accessible. The Milan metro will only operate at 30% of its capacity to allow social distancing, reducing the number of passengers it can carry from 1.4 million to 400,000 people.

According to experts, it is crucial that governments invest in a more sustainable society. “Today we recognize that the world can change by a penny,” said McCarthy. “We have to invest those stimulus dollars for a better future. [and] prepare to respond to pandemics like this. “

The global response to Covid-19 should be leveraged to create a healthier society, better prepared for emergencies, according to Neira.

“After the masks are gone, we will breathe cleaner,” she says.

The emissions from the trip he took to report this story were, unsurprisingly, 0 kg of CO2: the writer interviewed sources remotely from the safety of the shutdown. The digital emissions from this story are an estimate of 1.2 g to 3.6 g of CO2 per page viewed. Find out more about how we calculate this figure here.

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