Will Pollution Pauses Have a Lasting Impact?

The world is experiencing a sudden, dramatic drop in all kinds of air pollution. The skies are dramatically different. People can hear birds they didn’t even know were there, and see landscapes that have been shrouded for decades.

It’s saved thousands of lives in averted asthma and heart attacks. When this is all over, will people clamor for cleaner air? We discuss the potential long-term impacts on this week’s episode.

Then: the 2020 climate summit is postponed. Could that be a good thing? What are the political benefits and diplomatic drawbacks?

Finally, we’ll assess curtailments of solar and wind energy as electricity consumption drops around the world.

Recommended reading:

• Clean Air Memes from India: You Can See Los Angeles from Mumbai Now
• Reuters: Biggest fall in carbon emissions since World War Two
• WSJ: Coronavirus Lockdowns Clear the Air But the Effect Could be Fleeting
• Twitter: Katharine Hayhoe’s Most Recent Cool Explainer
• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Will the coronavirus have a lasting impact on carbon emissions?
• Forbes: Why Offering “Home-Office” Balance Leads to the Most Productive Employees
• Bloomberg: What It Means to Have a Year Without Climate Diplomacy
• E&ENews: Pandemic Delays Global Climate Summit
• Climate Action Tracker: How the Pledges of Each Nation Stack Up
• GTM: California Curtailment Surge as Coronavirus Cuts Demand
• ITWeb: Eskom’s COVID-19 power curtailment bid stuns wind sector
• GTM: 2017 Primer–Too Much of a Good Thing? An Illustrated Guide to Solar Curtailment on California’s Grid

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