Dramatic Lockdown Fossil Fuel CO2 Decrease Detected by Citizen Science-Supported Atmospheric Radiocarbon Observations.
Environ Sci Technol
; 56(14): 9882-9890, 2022 07 19.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1908069
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 lockdowns resulted in dramatic changes to fossil fuel CO2 emissions around the world, most prominently in the transportation sector. Yet travel restrictions also hampered observational data collection, making it difficult to evaluate emission changes as they occurred. To overcome this, we used a novel citizen science campaign to detect emission changes during lockdown and engage youth in climate science. Citizen scientists collected grass samples from their garden or local park, from which we analyzed the radiocarbon content to infer the recently added atmospheric fossil fuel CO2 mole fraction at each sampling location. The local fossil fuel CO2 mole fractions during lockdown were compared with a "normal" nonlockdown period. Our results from 17 sites in five cities around New Zealand demonstrate dramatic reductions in traffic emissions of 75 ± 3% during the most severe lockdown restriction period. This is consistent with sparse local traffic count information and a much larger decrease in traffic emissions than reported in global aggregate estimates of emission changes. Our results demonstrate that despite nationally consistent rules on travel during lockdown, emission changes varied by location, with inner-city sites typically dominated by bus traffic showing smaller decreases in emissions than elsewhere.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Air Pollutants
/
Citizen Science
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Environ Sci Technol
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Acs.est.1c07994
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