{"id":428992,"date":"2020-04-29T10:51:51","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T14:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=428992"},"modified":"2020-04-29T10:51:51","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T14:51:51","slug":"cleaner-air-covid-19-428992","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/cleaner-air-covid-19-428992\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleaner air a \u2018short-term\u2019 silver lining of COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The COVID-19 stay-at-home order has a silver lining for the environment: fewer people out on the road has led to a dramatic decrease in nitrogen dioxide, an air pollutant that forms almost exclusively because of fossil fuel combustion.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sas.rochester.edu\/ees\/people\/faculty\/murray_lee\/index.html\">Lee Murray<\/a>, an assistant professor of earth and environmental science at the <a href=\"https:\/\/rochester.edu\">University of Rochester<\/a>, told<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/m.rochestercitynewspaper.com\/rochester\/coronavirus-clears-the-air-in-rochester-and-around-the-earth\/Content?oid=11704294\"><em>City New<\/em>s<em>paper<\/em><\/a> that the area\u2019s nitrogen dioxide concentrations in March were 30 percent lower than in March 2019, according to the surface measurements Murray tracks at the New York Department of Environmental Conservation\u2019s air-quality monitoring site in Rochester. Murray helps the state interpret greenhouse gas measurements at this site and three other sites across New York.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But, while this is good for the environment now, Murray does not anticipate levels will stay this low.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems like most of the impacts are just going to be short-term impacts associated with air quality improvements, but as soon as the economy goes back to business as usual then the air pollution will go back to business as usual as well,\u201d he told <em>City<\/em>\u2019s Jeremy Moule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Environmental scientist Lee Murray tells City Newspaper that the area\u2019s nitrogen dioxide concentrations in March were 30 percent lower than in March 2019. But the benefit won&#8217;t last, he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":429132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29212],"tags":[37592,18852,32532,16072],"class_list":["post-428992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voices-opinion","tag-covid-19","tag-department-of-earth-and-environmental-sciences","tag-lee-murray","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cleaner air a \u2018short-term\u2019 silver lining of COVID-19<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"University of Rochester scientist Lee Murray ties local decline in air pollution to less driving during COVID-19 pandemic.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/cleaner-air-covid-19-428992\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cleaner air a \u2018short-term\u2019 silver lining of COVID-19\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"University of Rochester scientist Lee Murray ties local decline in air pollution to less driving during COVID-19 pandemic.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/cleaner-air-covid-19-428992\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-29T14:51:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/fea_driving-pollution-covid-19.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lindsey Valich\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lindsey Valich\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/cleaner-air-covid-19-428992\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/cleaner-air-covid-19-428992\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lindsey Valich\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/fcd7d29a5b8e855924bf73b764dcd827\"},\"headline\":\"Cleaner air a \u2018short-term\u2019 silver lining of COVID-19\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-29T14:51:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/cleaner-air-covid-19-428992\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":186,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/cleaner-air-covid-19-428992\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/fea_driving-pollution-covid-19.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"COVID-19\",\"Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences\",\"Lee Murray\",\"School of Arts and Sciences\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Voices &amp; 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