• Air

New Delhi Raises Ambitions To Fight Air Pollution

• air pollution
• COVID-19
• India
• smog

by Julia Fine, ODP Contributing Writer New Delhi officials have “introduced an antipollution campaign in an attempt to curb air pollution ahead of winter, when the city is regularly covered in toxic haze,” the Associated Press reported this week. The city of 21 million people New Delhi has some of the worst air quality in […]

• Sustainability

COVID-19 Brings Clothes Recycling to a Halt

• COVID-19
• fast fashion
• recycling
• used clothes

The second-hand clothes trade ensures that abandoned clothes don’t pile up in landfills, and at the same time, makes it possible for the fashion industry to introduce new designs for each new season. However, Reuters reports that this system has slowed to a stop as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why this matters:  The fashion industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for up to 10% of global carbon emissions.

• Animals
• Ocean

500,000 Sharks May Die to Create COVID Vaccine

• conservation
• COVID-19
• endangered
• science
• shark
• shark fins
• squalene
• vaccine

Shark populations may be in danger as countries race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Conservationists fear that the demand for a cheap and accessible source of squalene, a common vaccine ingredient produced by shark livers, could lead to the killing of 500,000 sharks.

Why This Matters: Sharks are under attack across the globe. Overfishing and habitat loss have left 143 different shark species considered “endangered,” “critically endangered,” “near threatened,” or “vulnerable.”

• Ocean

Freshwater Mussels Face Potential Pandemic of Their Own

• COVID-19
• disease
• ecosystem
• mussels
• pandemic
• wildlife

While humans face COVID-19, freshwater mussels could be facing a pandemic of their own. Researchers have found a novel densovirus, dubbed “Mussel-bola,” that may be responsible for killing 80,000 mussels in a 650 foot stretch of the Clinch River in Virginia over only 2 years.

Why This Matters: Mussels serve as a proverbial canary in the coalmine for freshwater ecosystems.

• Air

COVID Clean Air Benefits Prove to Be Short-Lived

• air pollution
• coronavirus
• COVID-19

by Julia Fine, ODP Contributing Writer The positive environmental impact of the COVID-19 pandemic “prove short-lived,” Rebecca Beitsch reported for the Hill this week. While emissions took a “massive drop a few months ago,” according to Beitsch they are now “within 5 percent of what they were around the same time last year.”  Professor Corinne […]

• Health

Wildfire Smoke Increases COVID-19 Risk for Frontline Communities

• coronavirus
• COVID-19
• smoke
• wildfires

by Razi Beresin-Scher and Miro Korenha According to recent reporting from The Hill, atmospheric smoke is exacerbating the toll of the COVID-19 virus in Oregon and California. Smoke inhalation weakens the immune systems of those suffering from asthma and other underlying respiratory conditions, compromising their ability to recover from the virus.  Researchers at the Harvard […]