How the coronavirus has proven that we can mitigate climate change

The global response to the coronavirus pandemic has shown us that we can change our routines and behavior. One of my students organized “WHEN, NOT IF…” to ask if people could reduce driving vehicles by 10% per week to substantially reduce their CO2 output. He created a handy calculator that allows you to enter the amount of driving you do per week so you can see how much CO2 you are responsible for emitting each year. Now that we’re all sheltering in place, let’s enter our numbers to see how much CO2 has been reduced and what we can do in the future to lower our carbon emissions. That’s something we can all do now that we are driving less!

Roadways and freeways are open with considerably less traffic. The skies are clear and the air is fresh to breathe. Plants and wildlife have shown significant improvement in just a few months. The earth is breathing a sigh of relief. We can all make changes in our lifestyles to treat ourselves better, to treat the earth better, and to treat future generations better. We can do this!

Happy Earth Day!