A forever change: Sustainable living in a COVID world
The project
In April 2020, just a few weeks after many countries went into pandemic shutdowns, I read an article that showed how COVID shutdowns around the globe were lowering air pollution levels dramatically. For the first time in decades, people in Delhi could see the Taj Mahal 115 miles away, others in Punjab, India could see the Himalayas 250 miles away, and those in China could see clearer than ever.
The world had not seen such a dramatic decrease in air pollution since the start of the industrial revolution, almost a century ago. This global experiment led me to this question – What can we learn from this reduction in air pollution levels?
So I crafted a research project with 2 phases:
Phase 1: Gather 2020 global air pollution data and compare it to data from 2019 to understand the change in air pollution levels. Next, identify which activities led to the reduced air pollution levels. Finally, recommend lifestyle changes that can sustain the reduced air pollution. The goal was to make recommendations that any person could implement and make a difference.
Phase 2: Run a human trial to verify the efficacy of the recommended changes.
The challenge then was to ground the lifestyle change recommendations in the latest irrefutable pollution data and changes in human activity that led to the reduction.
Read the full project details here. For a brief version continue below.
PHASE 1
I collected, sorted, organized, and analyzed air pollution data for 4 major cities, each in a different continent. Data synthesis showed that 3 out of 4 cities had on average a 15% reduction in PM 2.5 levels in 2020 compared to 2019. One city had an increase in air pollution levels, most likely due to increased wildfires.
Across all four industrialized cities, the leading causes of air pollution were -- industrial production, road traffic, agriculture, and road dust. Shutdowns in all four cities slowed or closed these activities. This pattern of common causes of air pollution and the demonstrable reduction in pollution was promising.
The next step was to link each of these activities to everyday consumer activities, which if changed could sustain the reduced air pollution levels.
Turns out, 44% of all greenhouse gas emissions are due to industrial production, and of this 21% is due to plastic production for consumer goods. 50% of all of THOSE plastics are Single Use Plastics. Reducing the use of Single Use Plastics can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by industrial production. If a person reduced their use of plastic bottles by 11.6 bottles a day or used 8 less plastic cups a day, they could reduce their carbon footprint by 50%.
28% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation, and of this 45% is from gasoline powered consumer transportation. If a single person used transportation that relies on renewable energy sources just 2 days every week, they would reduce their carbon emission by 30%.
10% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture with beef production generating the most greenhouse gases. Replacing that beef with plants would drop it to 73 pounds of CO2. Eating plant-based foods reduces that air pollution by 90% - from just 1 person!
PHASE 2
A human trial, to determine the efficacy of implementing these recommended lifestyle changes.
Research shows that it takes 30 days to situate a new habit. So, I invited 30 participants to take on a lifestyle change challenge for 30 days. Of the 30 that were invited, 10 of them picked one lifestyle change out of 3 -- use renewable transportation, eat vegetarian food or reduce the use of single use plastics. Out of the 10 participants, 5 -- or 16% -- were able to maintain their commitment for all 30 days. I cheered, offered suggestions, tracked the participants daily consumption. 3 participants changed their lifestyles permanently -- 2 became vegetarian, and 1 has permanently changed the products they use to reduce their use of SUPs by 1/2. Those that became vegetarian were able to reduce their carbon footprint by 30-40%.
Those are significant reductions!
However, these achievements did not come without commitment and persistence.
Single Use Plastics are omnipresent. Making alternative choices required participants to plan ahead. Access to alternatives was a barrier to making the changes. However, committed participants were able to find alternatives, sometimes even options they preferred. Over a period of 30 days, the change was habitual and imperceptible. The upfront commitment is the greatest hurdle to reducing SUP usage.
Vegetarianism, like SUP also requires more conscious planning. When compared to the SUP challenge, participants choosing vegetarian food had to make the conscious choice less number of times a day. It left less room for faulting on their commitment. Vegetarian food is generally easily accessible so making vegetarian choices seemed relatively easy. Over time, this choice too became habitual, and even more pleasurable.
These results are promising and indicate that changes in consumer habits can have a powerful impact on reducing air pollution levels permanently. It is worthwhile considering the large-scale adoption of these lifestyle changes.