- English
The whole world has been on intermittent lockdowns due to the present COVID-19 pandemic. The industrial deacceleration caused by the pandemic has affected everyone without distinction of wealth, religion, or nationality. Also, the pandemic has evidenced how socio-environmental processes have been altered or accentuated, relieving the environment momentarily from an almost chronic deterioration. Likewise, the lockdown has affected the aquatic systems where direct or indirect improvements in ecosystem services have been observed. In the atmosphere, the presence and dynamics of pollutants worldwide provide some insights into the responsibility of the acceleration of the human enterprise. The induced de-acceleration, evidenced in reduced human movement, industrial closure, and tourists' reduction, also affected water quality, fish populations in lacustrine, marine, and lagoon environments. This pandemic has opened up new challenges focusing on sustainable development goals in the global economy and the way forward to achieve them on time. The book presents five different themes, with thirty-four chapters capturing the collective thinking on how our environment change during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The studies encompass short-term variations of specific climatic factors that indicate a shred of unclear evidence on climate change mitigation. Yet, the collective evidence represents the basis for assessing how a sudden reduction in our industrialization can benefit the environment.
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