With millions of people in quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, has had positive effects on the environment. We can look for positivity during this hard time in our environment, as it is already starting to heal. The healing of our environment is one positive aspect that we can focus on during this hard time because all over the world canals, animals, and even air quality has been affected in different ways due to this pandemic. With just a few days of the world slowing down, Earth is healing itself due to the less amount of people contributing to air pollution and water pollution. 

Venice Canal is Clear

Due to the urgent and forceful quarantine put on by the country Italy, the water in the Venice Canal now appears clear! Usually, the canal is used by tourists and locals for travel and which stirs up the sediments makes the canal appear cloudy. Now, since there is no activity, in the canal the water appears clear.  The appearance of the clear water is the result of less people traveling in the canal making the sediments stirr up less, making the water clear, not necessarily improving water quality.

Air Pollution is Being Reduced

In the major countries that are currently affected by COVID-19 studies have shown that their NO2 levels have gone down tremendously. In Italy and China, these levels have been proven in their more industrial areas. The NO2 levels have dropped along with their transportation levels, furthermore improving the air quality. Now local transportation has dropped, but due to quarantine, so has international thus reducing the need for planes, reducing air pollution even more. 

Wildlife Roaming

With the drop of tourism rates, there are no tourists to feed the animals at popular tourist attractions in places like in Thailand and Japan. In Thailand, monkeys were fighting for scraps of food because there are no tourists to feed them. In Nara Park, Japan sika deer were roaming around for food since tourists also feed these deer treats. Wildlife all over the world is now needing to find a way to feed themselves with the lack of tourism and restaurants being open. Even though these animals must find a way to adapt to their hunger crisis, their habitats are no longer being destroyed because of the halt on deforestation since the quarantine. 

With everyone in the world slowing down due to this virus, the Earth is already beginning to fix some environmental problems such as air quality. Hopefully, this pandemic can allow people around the world to see how they contribute to pollution and see how Earth thrived when people slowed down. Even though people all around the globe are suffering from this hardship, there are still good things in the world that are happening and that should also be given attention.