COVID-19 Q&A: How has the pandemic impacted the environment?
While the world has been locked down for much of the spring and summer, airplanes have been grounded, fishing fleets have sat mostly idle and cars have stayed parked in their driveway as people worked from home. What kind of impact has this had on the environment? And what lessons have we learned from the relatively quick pivot governments and citizens have made to combat the spread of COVID-19? Can we apply the same commitment and speed of mobilization to pressing issues like climate change?
To answer these questions, we spoke to Elena Bennett, Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences and the School of Environment. Bennett is an ecosystem ecologist and the co-founder of the group Seeds of Good Anthropocenes, which collects and studies the ways that people address environmental problems.