No COVID-19 climate silver lining in the US power sector.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Luke M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8333368 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:COVID-19 has led to an unprecedented reduction in demand for energy for transportation and electricity, a crash in prices and employment in the fossil fuel industries and record-breaking reductions in global carbon emissions. This paper discusses whether this "demand destruction" could spell the beginning of the end for fossil fuels or a temporary recession and the imperative to recover from the current crisis by "building back better" and not the same as before. There are encouraging signs for the renewable energy industry that could make COVID-19 a cloud with a silver lining; whether this is the case will depend not only on the technological realities and social response to the crisis but also on political will and foresight.
| S-EPMC7675242 | biostudies-literature
Project description:PurposeThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has propelled health care workers to the front lines against the pandemic. In addition to anxiety related to infection risks, trainees have the additional burden of learning and career planning while providing care in an uncertain and rapidly changing environment. We conducted a survey to evaluate the practical and psychosocial impact on radiation oncology fellows during the first month of the pandemic.Methods and materialsA 4-part survey was designed and distributed to the fellows in our program. The survey was designed to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on scope of activity and well-being ("Impact on You") and to identify key lessons learned and social factors ("About You") using Likert scales and open-ended response options. The survey included items from the Oldenburg Burnout questionnaire.ResultsA total of 17 participants (71%) responded to the survey. Although there was a significant reduction in the mean time spent on in-person clinics (13.5 h/wk [pre-COVID] vs 9.3 h/wk [3 weeks into the COVID emergency response]; P = .002), this was replaced by virtual consults and other COVID-related activities. The proportion of respondents demonstrating features of burnout in the domains of "disengagement" and "exhaustion" was 71% and 64%, respectively. However, there was also evidence of resilience, with 47% respondents "feeling energized." Top "concerns" and "negative changes" identified related to learning, infection risk and safety, patient care, coping, and concerns about their home country. Top "positive changes" highlighted include work culture, appreciation for leadership caring for the team, the insistence on evidence to guide change, and the implementation of virtual health care.ConclusionsNegative impact needs to be anticipated, acknowledged, and managed. We anticipate understanding the positives that have emerged under these extraordinary circumstances is the "silver lining" of the pandemic, giving us tools and the best leverage to plan for the future.
| S-EPMC7377812 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundHealth-seeking behaviors change during pandemics and may increase with regard to illnesses with symptoms similar to the pandemic. The global reaction to COVID-19 may drive interest in vaccines for other diseases.ObjectivesOur study investigated the correlation between global online interest in COVID-19 and interest in CDC-recommended routine vaccines.Design, settings, measurementsThis infodemiology study used Google Trends data to quantify worldwide interest in COVID-19 and CDC-recommended vaccines using the unit search volume index (SVI), which estimates volume of online search activity relative to highest volume of searches within a specified period. SVIs from December 30, 2019 to March 30, 2020 were collected for "coronavirus (Virus)" and compared with SVIs of search terms related to CDC-recommended adult vaccines. To account for seasonal variation, we compared SVIs from December 30, 2019 to March 30, 2020 with SVIs from the same months in 2015 to 2019. We performed country-level analyses in ten COVID-19 hotspots and ten countries with low disease burden.ResultsThere were significant positive correlations between SVIs for "coronavirus (Virus)" and search terms for pneumococcal (R = 0.89, p < 0.0001) and influenza vaccines (R = 0.93, p < 0.0001) in 2020, which were greater than SVIs for the same terms in 2015-2019 (p = 0.005, p < 0.0001, respectively). Eight in ten COVID-19 hotspots demonstrated significant positive correlations between SVIs for coronavirus and search terms for pneumococcal and influenza vaccines.LimitationsSVIs estimate relative changes in online interest and do not represent the interest of people with no Internet access.ConclusionA peak in worldwide interest in pneumococcal and influenza vaccines coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic in February and March 2020. Trends are likely not seasonal in origin and may be driven by COVID-19 hotspots. Global events may change public perception about the importance of vaccines. Our findings may herald higher demand for pneumonia and influenza vaccines in the upcoming season.
| S-EPMC7315971 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background COVID-19 pandemic school shutdowns impacted child food security. Resilient school meal programs are imperative to cope and persist through shocks and stressors. Objective To explore unforeseen positive outcomes and determine best practices during the COVID-19 pandemic for child nutrition directors in Mississippi (MS), Louisiana (LA), and West Virginia (WV). Study Design, Setting, Participants A semi-structured focus group discussion guide was developed based on the resilience capacity model (RCM). Four focus group discussions with child nutrition directors (n = 16) from MS, LA, and WV were conducted to elicit directors’ perceptions of encouraging outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic and best practices for building resilient school meal programs. Measurable Outcome/Analysis The discussion guide was tested for content validation by subject experts and face validation by testing the guide in one focus group discussion session. The primary researcher developed a codebook based on the conceptual RCM. Two researchers independently reviewed and coded transcripts to assess interrater reliability. Predominant themes were identified using an inductive and deductive content analysis approach. Results Encouraging outcomes included acknowledgment of school nutrition staff as essential workers and recognition of child nutrition programs as important for child food security. Best practices recommended by child nutrition directors include effective communication and networking among all personnel from policymakers to staff involved in food preparation and distribution, revision of standard operating procedures to include disaster/pandemic related mitigation strategies, taking initiatives to improve school meal provision process, and emergency management training for everyone involved in school meal provision process. Director recommendations included: in-class food distribution, increased food storage, preparation, and distribution equipment, and developing a best practices policy document for each state with a comprehensive plan for emergency management situations. Conclusions Future emergency school nutrition policies should encourage efficient communication, revision of existing standard operating procedures, and implement training for all school nutrition personnel. Funding Achieving Equity Investment Grant 2021 (University of Mississippi)
| S-EPMC9260006 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 has caused tremendous suffering and huge economic losses. We hypothesized that extreme measures of partial-to-total shutdown might have influenced the quality of the global environment because of decreased emissions of atmospheric pollutants. We tested this hypothesis using satellite imagery, climatic datasets (temperature, and absolute humidity), and COVID-19 cases available in the public domain. While the majority of the cases were recorded from Western countries, where mortality rates were strongly positively correlated with age, the number of cases in tropical regions was relatively lower than European and North American regions, possibly attributed to faster human-to-human transmission. There was a substantial reduction in the level of nitrogen dioxide (NO2: 0.00002 mol m-2), a low reduction in CO (<0.03 mol m-2), and a low-to-moderate reduction in Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD: ~0.1-0.2) in the major hotspots of COVID-19 outbreak during February-March 2020, which may be attributed to the mass lockdowns. Our study projects an increasing coverage of high COVID-19 hazard at absolute humidity levels ranging from 4 to 9 g m-3 across a large part of the globe during April-July 2020 due to a high prospective meteorological suitability for COVID-19 spread. Our findings suggest that there is ample scope for restoring the global environment from the ill-effects of anthropogenic activities through temporary shutdown measures.
| S-EPMC7207165 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC10500972 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Methane emissions along the natural gas supply chain are critical for the climate benefit achievable by fuel switching from coal to natural gas in the electric power sector. For Germany, one of the world's largest primary energy consumers, with a coal and natural gas share in the power sector of 35% and 13%, respectively, we conducted fleet-conversion modelling for reference year 2018, taking domestic and export country specific greenhouse gas (GHG)-emissions in the natural gas and coal supply chains into account. Methane leakage rates below 4.9% (GWP20; immediate 4.1%) in the natural gas supply chain lead to overall reduction of CO2-equivalent GHG-emissions by fuel switching. Supply chain methane emissions vary significantly for the import countries Russia, Norway and The Netherlands, yet for Germany's combined natural gas mix lie with << 1% far below specific break-even leakage rates. Supply chain emission scenarios demonstrate that a complete shift to natural gas would emit 30-55% (GWP20 and GWP100, respectively) less CO2-equivalent GHG than from the coal mix. However, further abating methane emissions in the petroleum sector should remain a prime effort, when considering natural gas as bridge fuel on the path to achieve the Paris climate goals.
| S-EPMC8169676 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Climate, technologies, and socio-economic changes will influence future building energy use in cities. However, current low-resolution regional and state-level analyses are insufficient to reliably assist city-level decision-making. Here we estimate mid-century hourly building energy consumption in 277 U.S. urban areas using a bottom-up approach. The projected future climate change results in heterogeneous changes in energy use intensity (EUI) among urban areas, particularly under higher warming scenarios, with on average 10.1-37.7% increases in the frequency of peak building electricity EUI but over 110% increases in some cities. For each 1 °C of warming, the mean city-scale space-conditioning EUI experiences an average increase/decrease of ~14%/ ~ 10% for space cooling/heating. Heterogeneous city-scale building source energy use changes are primarily driven by population and power sector changes, on average ranging from -9% to 40% with consistent south-north gradients under different scenarios. Across the scenarios considered here, the changes in city-scale building source energy use, when averaged over all urban areas, are as follows: -2.5% to -2.0% due to climate change, 7.3% to 52.2% due to population growth, and -17.1% to -8.9% due to power sector decarbonization. Our findings underscore the necessity of considering intercity heterogeneity when developing sustainable and resilient urban energy systems.
| S-EPMC10584859 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The outbreak of COVID-19 in China has led to massive lockdowns in order to reduce the spread of the epidemic and control human-to-human transmission. Subsequent reductions in various anthropogenic activities have led to improved air quality during the lockdown. In this study, we apply a widely used exposure-response function to estimate the short-term health impacts associated with PM2.5 changes over the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region due to COVID-19 lockdown. Concentrations of PM2.5 during lockdown period reduced by 22.9% to 54.0% compared to pre-lockdown level. Estimated PM2.5-related daily premature mortality during lockdown period is 895 (95% confidential interval: 637-1,081), which is 43.3% lower than pre-lockdown period and 46.5% lower compared with averages of 2017-2019. According to our calculation, total number of avoided premature death aassociated with PM2.5 reduction during the lockdown is estimated to be 42.4 thousand over the YRD region, with Shanghai, Wenzhou, Suzhou (Jiangsu province), Nanjing, and Nantong being the top five cities with largest health benefits. Avoided premature mortality is mostly contributed by reduced death associated with stroke (16.9 thousand, accounting for 40.0%), ischemic heart disease (14.0 thousand, 33.2%), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (7.6 thousand, 18.0%). Our calculations do not support or advocate any idea that pandemics produce a positive note to community health. We simply present health benefits from air pollution improvement due to large emission reductions from lowered human and industrial activities. Our results show that continuous efforts to improve air quality are essential to protect public health, especially over city-clusters with dense population.
| S-EPMC7361223 | biostudies-literature