As the demand for transportation fuels has plummeted in the last month due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a Northern Arizona University scientist says the dramatic decrease in local air pollution and carbon dioxide (CO2) levels above cities is significant, measurable and could be historic, depending on how long commuters and other drivers stay off the road.
Professor Kevin Gurney of NAU’s School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems measures greenhouse gas emissions in major U.S. cities. He says the consumption of three important fuels has made a nose-dive: gasoline, jet fuel and distillate (diesel).
“For the first three weeks of April, gasoline has declined 43.1 percent, jet fuel by 59.3 percent and diesel fuels by 16.7 percent compared to the same three weeks over the last decade,” Gurney said. “If you didn’t know any better, you’d think it was an error in the data. Nothing like this has ever shown up in the record. Never.”
Vehicles driving on the road account for roughly 20 percent of carbon dioxide emissions each year.
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