The Unintentional Experiment That Could Change Local Climates
Why are we ignoring this discovery?
April 2020. In my part of the country Covid is a raging unknown killer and we are desperate to find a way to slow its progress. We go into lockdown across our communities.
We stop going into work and school. We mask and walk wide circles around each other when outside. We severely limit travel, including local trips to grocery stores and services. We hunker down.
And our cars sit parked and mostly unused.
While we are huddling in our homes, rediscovering things like bread baking and hanging out with family, something is happening outside, something momentous.
And we largely ignore it, and still ignore it; this great unintentional experiment, unplanned, large scale, and largely unrecorded. Few collect data and it is purely observational.
After all, we are dealing with a deadly pandemic. Science has their hands full.
But outside, especially in urban areas, something eerie is going on. It’s very quiet, the roads are empty in ways we have never seen, like something in an apocalyptic movie.
The cars are gone except for the occasional ghostly person running for groceries. Red lights change and walk signs flash…
