The effects of covid-19 on humanity are very well known, lockdowns, quarantining, online learning and limited traveling. Now all of these effects listed are not very good for us but covid is actually good for something else that also benefits us indirectly.

Let’s first start us off with the effects of covid-19 on the ocean. Now of course covid can’t actually travel through water but covid 19 can actually indirectly help save the ocean’s health and it’s also doing it right now. You see, since covid-19 has actually been limiting travel, it has also stopped the amount littering plastic into the ocean, therefore cleaning the ocean indirectly. Of course this isn’t the only good thing covid 19 is doing for the ocean.

As you’ll know since the lockdowns covid-19 has basically stopped us people from traveling around the world safely, specifically it has stopped 93.7% of the world’s travel in march 2021 alone. Something we already know is that we like to litter a lot, especially into the oceans, another thing that we’re doing wrong for the ocean is fish overconsumption. Initially during the firth months of the pandemic, fish consumption was actually lowered a lot to where the demand for it was static and not increasing. This allowed the fish population to make a comeback from all the overfishing that fishing companies have done for the past few decades.

Another thing that covid-19 has positively done for the environment is to reduce carbon and fossil fuel emissions. Like the ocean because of lowered travel due to lockdown laws, cars, planes and other factories that rely on consumer goods have seen lower consumption or use which slows down the production of carbon emissions.

Now from all of this you’d assume that covid has really helped in an environmental recovery, but in reality there are also environmental consequences of covid. Due to the vaccine effort that has been going around the world and the massive amount of ATK tests going out, it has caused a huge amount of medical waste and disposal of hazardous items. Also because of the disposing of hazardous items and equipment, it has also negatively impacted the ocean as well as another form of plastic in the ocean and including all the chemicals that make up a vaccine causing a bit more harm to the ocean.

So though covid-19 has had some positive effects on the environment, there have also negative consequences on the environment. You may not have expected that covid-19 could benefit the environment in a healthy way, but its good to know that covid has done something good for the environment.