PG experiencing improved air quality so far in 2020

“In general, we are seeing a reduction in some of the pollutants (in Prince George), not all,” said Roth. “The ones that tied to traffic, in particular, are more notable, so road dust and nitrous oxide compounds. Some of those reductions could even be from reduced activities such as restaurants, such as their emissions from cooking as well.”

Roth says traffic is certainly an early indicator of being a contributor to the city’s reduction in emissions since the Province started its state of emergency. According to data, the city still experiences peaks of pollutants during rush hour, however, Roth says they’re much reduced compared to the same period from year’s prior.

“It’s obviously a very unfortunate situation, but there are always opportunities to take out of that and it’s almost a forced natural experiment where (we look at) what happens when we don’t drive our cars so frequently. If there’s value that we can take out of this time, what we are seeing early indications of is that individual actions do matter.”

Roth says its really about piecing together the meteorology and what we as residents are doing as February too showed improved air quality than the same months of years past, and that came before the Province’s imposed restrictions in response to the coronavirus.

In order to get some quantitative statistics, Roth admits that will take some time as the “after picture” would be beneficial in understanding the true impacts that restrictions had on air quality as greenhouse gas emissions routinely fall during economic hardships and bounce back afterwards.

by Ethan Ready

PG experiencing improved air quality so far in 2020

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