With the magnitude of fear and chaos generated from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is no surprise that it has changed our world drastically. For years, climate change has always been a heated topic. Put together, they superimpose to become a massive phenomena that altered and affected our world. This leads to many people wondering what the impacts of this pandemic are to our environment. Undoubtedly, COVID-19 has had negative impacts to the environment but it has also brought many positive impacts in terms of reduced carbon emissions and halting urbanisation.

Firstly, while others may believe that due to  the COVID-19 pandemic being immensely changing our world, solving the problems it caused has topped the list of priorities for most countries. This means that government funds that were supposed to be allocated for the environmental programmes are now used for COVID-19 related responses. According to the US Treasury Department, The American Rescue Plan has provided $350 billion in emergency funding to respond to COVID-19 emergencies alone. As a result of this, some local environmental programmes were either put on hold or were stopped entirely due to lack of funds. Thus, funds allocated for environmental programmes are now being cut short to battle against COVID-19, cutting down the fight for climate change, halting environmental destruction prevention.

Secondly, critics may also insist that the desire to not be affected by COVID-19 and staying healthy has also affected the environment in a negative way. The sudden usage growth of masks and tissue is very evident in our surroundings. In fact, masks can be seen in the remotest places on earth, including mountains and deep oceans. North Carolina State University stated that people will use 40% more toilet paper than usual. While it may help us, it does not help the environment as toilet papers are made from trees and not reused paper. As a result, pollution is more evident and more trees are required to be cut down to the detriment of the environment.

However, despite these very firm and strong counter-arguments, I stick to my belief that the impacts of COVID- 19 have benefited the environment more than it did negatively. 

To start off, due to the lockdown and need for isolation globally, the usage of transportation has drastically decreased. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 41% of flights were canceled in April of 2020 alone. This led to the direct result of reduced carbon emissions from vehicles that would have affected the ozone layer. In fact, certain companies like Garuda Indonesia and Virgin Australia are currently fighting bankruptcy. Passenger demand is at an all time low and the usage of aircrafts have significantly dropped in number, resulting in the cancellations or reduction of routes. Thus, the reduced usage of transportation by passengers or individuals significantly reduces carbon emissions, hence conserving the environment.

Furthermore, this COVID-19 pandemic has also led to the conservation of many forests or green areas. The struggle for the economy for a lot of businesses has led to the undesirable routes they had to take. While there have already been struggles with the Dubai Creek Tower, this pandemic enhances the final decision of canceling this project completely, saving habitats of animals and stopping the destruction of nature. Qantas was set to launch their kangaroo route of project sunrise by 2022, however, this pandemic led Alan Joyce, the Chief Executive Officer of Qantas Airways to delay the project as a result of the economic crisis. Henceforward, COVID-19 pandemic has led to the direct result of certain businesses from further harming our environment.

Lastly, this pandemic has bought time for further technological enhancements that protect our environment. With the need for saving the environment being highly crucial right now, a lot of companies have put in the work to put out products that do no harm to the environment. Mercedes has slowly been developing electric cars. Tesla being high in popularity and demand, is producing electrical cars too. This pandemic has allowed Tesla to grow by adding charging stations to more countries worldwide. Obviously, electricity is environmentally friendly and is the replacement of burning of crude oil or fossil fuels, two major causes of pollution. This illustrates that the pandemic helped halt the usage of fuel vehicles and bought time for companies to produce higher quality environment safe products, benefiting the environment greatly.
In conclusion, while some argue that COVID-19 negatively affected the environment, I still agree that it has had a huge positive impact on the environment. While it may stop certain environmental programs from happening, it also stopped the causes of it in the first place. It also bought time for us to develop better and environmentally safe products to expand our future here on Earth. I hope that this COVID-19 acts as a learning experience for us all, educating us to limit the use of transport and truly know the essence of nature. After all, protecting the environment is the key to future generations to continue living on this planet which we call HOME.