To a lot of us this quarantine has felt like a drag that has provided nothing good. Recent studies, however, have discovered that through all this staying at home that we’ve been doing it has brought some good with it. According to Helen Regan of cnn.com, “Major cities that suffer from the world’s worst air pollution have seen reductions of deadly particulate matter by up to 60% from the previous year, during a three-week lockdowns period.” 

This has helped us identify what exactly causes the air pollution in some of these major cities. As with factories shut down and people driving their cars less, it all combines to form lower pollution levels than we have seen before the 20th century. But it only begs the question if once this quarantine is lifted, will the pollution levels rebound back to where they were before the quarantine was initiated? When asked what he thinks, FMHS junior Peter Conklin said, “With how the pollution levels dropped I feel it happened in  a way that we can’t be fixed relatively easy, because we rely on public transportation for a lot of what we do.” 

As some experts are speaking out about what to really think about the current drops in air pollution. “I see it and I don’t think of a silver lining,” says Wade McGillis, an associate professor of earth and environmental engineering at Columbia University. “I see it and I think: those poor people who are not moving around and sheltered in place, and their lives being ruined.” So while we all may be looking at this air pollution drop as a great thing. We need to realize this may just be something that comes as an after-effect.