Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
New data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite reveal the decline of air pollution, specifically nitrogen dioxide emissions, over Italy. This reduction is particularly visible in northern Italy which coincides with its nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The animation shows the fluctuation of nitrogen dioxide emissions across Europe from 1 January 2020 until 11 March 2020, using a 10-day moving average. These data are thanks to the Tropomi instrument on board the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite which maps a multitude of air pollutants around the globe.
Claus Zehner, ESA's Copernicus Sentinel-5P mission manager, comments, "The decline in nitrogen dioxide emissions over the Po Valley in northern Italy is particularly evident.
"Although there could be slight variations in the data due to cloud cover and changing weather, we are very confident that the reduction in emissions that we can see, coincides with the lockdown in Italy causing less traffic and industrial activities."
Josef Aschbacher, ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programmes, says, "Copernicus Sentinel-5P Tropomi is the most accurate instrument today that measures air pollution from space. These measurements, globally available thanks to the free and open data policy, provide crucial information for citizens and decision makers."
(Score: 5, Interesting) by barbara hudson on Tuesday March 17 2020, @11:19PM (4 children)
I jest, but both China and Italy have many more males dying of COVID-19 than females. This is because males in both countries are far more likely to be smokers, and smoking screws up your lungs.
Nothing new [businessinsider.com]
Plenty of disclaimers about how it might not be smoking, taken right from Mike Pence's playbook. Can't afford to offend Big Tobacco.
But the fact is that both China and Italy have far more men dying than women, and other countries aren't seeing that - the difference being the higher smoking rates of men in both China and Italy. In Canada, for instance, it's 49/51 for infection rates between men and women as of this afternoon's news.
So all you desperate smokers who were going on about how you read something on Reddit that smoking protects people because of initial data from China - you were trolled. Stop smoking.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday March 17 2020, @11:47PM (1 child)
Anyway among the young generation it's been females who smoke at least as much as males. The stats still makes a lot of sense as youngsters are less targeted by the corona, or less likely to die from problems exacerbated by the corona.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Touché) by barbara hudson on Wednesday March 18 2020, @01:02AM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2020, @02:35AM
All this talk about smoking... *goes for a somke*
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 18 2020, @12:29PM
But if I read it on Reddit, it must be true!