Professor Francis Tam of Earth System Science Programme said the radical air quality improvement due to economic slowdown can save lives. The problems concerning air pollutant and greenhouse gases emission get alleviated because of the reduced road and air traffic, as well as the pause of industrial activities. While our earth is having a respite from decade-long intensive human activities, Professor Amos Tai reminded us that carbon dioxide emission might increase again at a rate even faster than before, and climate change and other environment problems might get exacerbated because people want to catch up and compensate for the lost time and GDP, as the global financial crisis in 2008 tells. The out-of-the-blue pandemic alerts us to face up the climate and environmental problems and rethink ways to save our planet.
