The pandemic has affected the environment by reducing global warming according to Morton East students and Cicero residence.

In a random survey of the environment being affected by the pandemic, Morton East students and Cicero residents, 70, said, the pandemic has helped the environment. According to NCBI, At First,  “The outbreak of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) first emerged at the end of December 2019, from the Hunan seafood market in Wuhan City of China, and declared as an international public health emergency in a couple of weeks by the World Health Organization.” Until now, “the pandemic situation significantly improves air quality in different cities across the world, reduces GHGs emission, lessens water pollution and noise, and reduces the pressure on the tourist destinations, which may assist with the restoration of the ecological system.” In addition, “there are also some negative consequences of COVID-19, such as the increase of medical waste, haphazard use and disposal of disinfectants, masks, and gloves; and burden of untreated wastes continuously endangering the environment.” In a random survey of 88 Morton East students and Cicero residents, 70 students reported that the pandemic has helped the environment.

“When we were quarantined, maybe. But most of the world is more/less back to day-to-day activities. And considering all the mask and plastic bottles of hand sanitizer and delivery trucks/vans/cars from more online shopping, I don’t think there was enough of a difference,” sophomore Christopher Hernandez said.

This student feels differently about how the pandemic has helped the environment because there have been more energy beings used to make things stay safe during the pandemic like producing more things.

“Yes and no. More plastic and chemicals have been produced and sprayed than ever before, as week as increased energy use. This damaged the environment. However, there were a lot fewer vehicles on the road and a lot less littering, since everyone was on their property. This greatly replenished the environment, and I think more than, made up for the damages,” Cicero resident Jayden Hernandez said.

Both students and teachers have the same opinion on how the pandemic has helped the environment by producing less carbon by having fewer vehicles and fewer factories being used.

“I did hear somewhere — probably on some news show — that the pandemic has helped reduce carbon emissions and climate change caused by humans. Fewer people are taking cars to work or leisure activities. Fewer factories are operating at capacity. Fewer toxins are being spewed into the environment,” journalism teacher Mr. Frankfother said.

However, according to the news, this benefit isn’t lasting.

“On the news this morning, I heard that while emissions were down, as soon as restrictions softened, our carbon emissions went up a lot — 2 percent higher than they even were before the pandemic struck,”  Mr. Frankfoher said.