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Discussion Question

RESEARCH QUESTION: DID THE PANDEMIC REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS IN NYC?

Do you predict the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere to increase or decrease during the pandemic? You can put your answers in the chat.

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ABSTRACT

Research Question: DID THE PANDEMIC REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS IN NYC?

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Initially, we thought that CO2 levels would go down in the atmosphere. In order to figure it out, we downloaded data from The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at the global level and used data from instruments at the local NY level. Then, we used Python to organize the data.This was very complicated because we needed to find averages for every single day. Every measurement was taken each hour which would not give us a daily representation. Using a computer platform called Anaconda, I learned how to program with the basics of Python. In the end, results showed that the amount of CO2 did not decrease during the pandemic at the global level. At the local level, there was a slight decrease read by the instruments during the period Jan-2020 - Jun-2020.

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BACKGROUND & INFORMATION

- Anthropogenic (man made) Climate Change occurs when fossil fuels are burned and the gases are released into the atmosphere where they stay for long periods of time. These gases are known as greenhouse gases keep the planet warm, but in great quantities, they accelerate the warming.

- Water vapor(H2O), Methane(CH4), and Carbon Dioxide(CO2) are the three main greenhouse gases. Water vapor increases as the Earth's atmosphere warms creating precipitation. Methane is the most active greenhouse gas and is produced naturally. CO2 is released through natural processes such as respiration and volcano eruptions.

- Global warming results in global temperature rise, warming and acid ocean, shrinking ice sheets, glacial retreat, decreased snow cover, sea level rise, and more.

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METHODOLOGY (GLOBAL)

We used the global CO2 data from The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

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METHODOLOGY (LOCAL)

We used local CO2 data from instrumentation located at 135th street in Manhattan and 261^st in the Bronx.

The Picarro G2301 gas concentration analyzer provides simultaneous, precise measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) at parts-per-billion (ppb) and water (H2O) vapor at parts-per-million (ppm) sensitivity with negligible drift for atmospheric science, air quality, and emissions quantification.

Picarro instrument located at 261st in the Bronx Community College Campus

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METHODOLOGY (LOCAL)

Statistical data for daily averages and graphing was executed in Python

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RESULTS(GLOBAL)

The amount of CO2 has been increasing over the years. Globally, for 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic, CO2 continued to increase

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RESULTS (LOCAL)

At the local level where the instruments are positioned, readings demonstrate a negative trend: -0.20 for Jan-Jun 2020 and -0.17 for the same period in 2021

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RESULTS (LOCAL)

A closer look to these values shows that there is no much difference between 2020 and 2021. Regretfully, we do not have other data to compare these values to.

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Discussion & Conclusions

At the local level, we did observe a decrease in the CO2 readings at the stations. Nevertheless we cannot conclusively attribute this finding to the pandemic specifically. More data is needed.

Regretfully, the Picarro instrument was not working before the pandemic and it stopped working during the month of July 2020.

Because of this reason we can only compare 2020 - 2021 with the assumption that more people left their houses at the beginning of the new year. Although we expected 2020 and 2021 to be different, they were not.

At the global level, we can clearly see that the pandemic did not affect the CO2 increasing trend. We attribute this to the Carbon cycle process in which Carbon Dioxide remains in the atmosphere for a long period of time. The drop in CO2 emissions during the pandemic at a global level was not significant enough to stand out from the natural seasonal changes of CO2 driven by photosynthesis and other processes of the Carbon Cycle.

My learning experience

In this work I learned:

Climate change/greenhouse gases basic science
How to search for reliable data
Data types
Data cleaning
Basic Python
Data interpretation
Data visualization/representation
Project presentation

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Pathways to Student STEM Success Research Experience for Undergraduates at Lehman College for

providing funding and programmatic support for this project. I would like to thank Professor Cullen for helping me during

the project. Lastly, I give thanks to Róisín Commane, Ph.D.

an Assistant Professor at Columbia University for collaborating with some data for this research project.