In China, drastic improvement in air quality.

The data does not lie. Throughout the entire month of February, the first of the long confinement in the Chinese province of Hubei, the average number of days without air pollution increased by 21.5% compared to the same dates of the previous year, according to a report of the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment. Likewise, satellite images published by NASA and the European Space Agency showed a drastic reduction in nitrogen dioxide emissions in the main cities of the country.

 

In northern Italy: unusual levels of nitrogen dioxide.

Something similar has ended up happening in Europe, where the wave of confinements produced in recent days has also resulted in a drastic improvement in air quality. This is revealed by the data from the Sentinel 5P satellite, in which a significant reduction in air pollution can be seen, coinciding with the drastic confinement measures taken in recent days. The animation shows the fluctuations in nitrogen dioxide between January 1 and March 11, 2020.

 

In Madrid and Barcelona, ​​purer air.

According to data from the city council of the Spanish capital, the city has considerably reduced the levels of air pollution. The data provided daily by the Madrid City Council's Air Quality Surveillance System leave no room for doubt: during the first days of confinement, the city's five districts have measures classified within the "very good" category of the air quality index. air quality. For its part, in Barcelona the data from the Generalitat indicate that the concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were reduced by half after only three days of confinement.

 

Over the days, the large cities of Spain have been gradually getting rid of the bad smoke, according to official data: the measurements carried out by the Medi Ambient department of the Generalitat de Catalunya concluded that on March 23 CO2 levels in Barcelona had been reduced by up to 75% compared to their usual level, while on the 21st the nitrogen dioxide had dropped between 70 and 80% compared to the period prior to the crisis. A downward trend that is also true in Madrid, where the municipal authorities have reported that greenhouse gases have been reduced by an average of 57% since the beginning of the confinement measures. A study by the Polytechnic University of Valencia found that Spanish skies were 64% cleaner on average. Barcelona, ​​Castellón and Madrid, with a reduction in pollution of 83, 76 and 73 percent respectively, are the main benefited cities.

 

In Venice he had crystal clear guides.

Last weekend, social networks abounded in which the canals of the city of Venice were distinguished as they had rarely been shown: completely clean. In some areas there were even corners with crystal clear waters that even sheltered some small schools of fish that had ventured into the channels from the lagoon or from the sea. “The lagoon takes over Venice, without spills and without traffic, you can see the bottom of the canals. We should reflect on the exploitation of tourist tourism in Venice”, Palli Caponera wrote on Twitter in a photograph in which a boat is observed on crystal clear waters. With less traffic on the canals, the sediments dragged by the boats return to the bottom, considerably reducing the cloudy water and giving Venice a picture worthy of the most beautiful Renaissance painting.

 

Wild fauna reconquered the cities

As more and more cities around the world succumb to lockdown orders, images abound on social media of wild animals venturing into uninhabited urban space. It is true that in many cases it is false or old news: it is not true that there are dolphins swimming in the canals of Venice or elephants that have fallen drunk after drinking liquor in a tea plantation in the Chinese province of Yunnan. However, it is true that there have been cases of unusual prints starring species that venture to occupy an urban landscape devoid of its usual movement.

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In the Japanese city of Nara, deer roam freely through the streets cleared of the usual tourists, while in the city of Oakland, located on the San Francisco Bay, wild turkeys have been sighted that have entered the facilities from a school. Closer to home, in Barcelona, ​​wild boars have been seen venturing into the uninhabited streets of the city center in search of food, and experts say that in the coming days.