ST. LOUIS — If it seems on a clear day you can see forever, it's no longer just a song lyric.
“There's been a big improvement in air quality in a lot of places," said Benjamin de Foy, a St. Louis University professor in the university’s department of earth and atmospheric sciences.
And it's happening all over the world. Lockdowns have cleared the air in usually smog-filled New Delhi, India. Even the canals of Venice, Italy have unexpectedly clear water.
By some estimates, the Coronavirus lockdown has taken about 80% of passenger cars off the roads resulting in a drastic reduction in air pollution.
It's the pandemic's silver lining but experts say when it comes to the climate crisis, it won't make a dent.
"It probably will not have a lasting effect because the climate crisis is a long term problem," de Foy said.
But Dr. de Foy says it is a reminder of what things could be like if we focus on the problem.
"I think of that as the lesson from the bald eagle,” de Foy said. “We saved the bald eagles, we can see bald eagles in the wild in St. Louis because there's been good policies over decades."
There was a time in St. Louis where someone would come home and their white shirt was black with soot, so de Foy points out that we can clean up the environment.
"Delays matter,” he said. “The longer you wait the worse the situation is going to be. We see that with the virus and we see that climate change."
It's expected when the economy finally bounces back, so too will emissions. Or perhaps this will be some kind of wake-up call.
“We want the lockdown to stop obviously, we want the economy to get going again but we want it to keep moving in a direction that is more climate-friendly," he said.
