COVID-19 lockdowns had strange effects on air pollution across the globe

Ever since the covid-19 spread, many changes have come with the _____________ unstoppable virus. China has shown the first sign. Rightly after a strict nationwide lockdown was _____________ in late January, most people were restricted from leaving their homes at all for as long as 3 weeks. As a result, the authority ___________ a sharp decline in the direct emissions of air pollution on a scale never observed before. “Changes in emissions would be significant and ___________ studying for it may bring us new solutions to greenhouse effect,” says Jiset Deew, a chemist at the Harvard University, “The pandemic has caused lots of tragedies, but the lesson we can learn is important.”

Researchers found it a strange but ___________ chance to capture how human economic activity—particularly car traffic—dropped rapidly and thus to seek for the answer to the influence of ___________ traffic on air quality. “Running atmospheric chemistry experiments is often a ___________ task based on the lack of experimental conditions, so we have to _________ really complex reaction chambers and computer models,” says Tg, who now works on the project _____________ organic aerosols at MIT. “But in this unprecedented year, we finally get the chance to __________ our ideas and we hope the new findings will further our understanding of the mechanisms that rule atmospheric chemistry but also offer guidance for policy makers who seek to improve air quality and ____________ climate change.”

During the lockdown, passenger traffic plumbed, and traffic-related emissions—particularly CO₂ and NO₂—__________ accordingly. Vehicles powered by gas directly release huge amounts of CO₂ and NO₂. CO₂, a greenhouse gas, plays a major role in global warming. Besides, NO₂ plays a __________ part in atmospheric reactions that produce ozone which helps __________ UV light (紫外线). Now, experts are still working to __________ how the two gases changed during pandemic.

This summer we said goodbye to unnecessary plastic waste. Starbucks committed to ________ plastic straws in all locations by 2020, IKEA banned all single-use plastics from its stores, and entire cities banned the use of plastic bags and straws. And now we have one more thing to add to our consciousness-raising list: People are starting to understand the ________ of contact lenses（隐形眼镜）.

According to a new research out of the American Chemical Society, 20 percent of people who wear contact lenses throw them away in the toilet or sink. But as medical ________, contact lenses are specifically designed to be resistant in touch environments, and ________ they don’t biodegrade easily. Throwing contact lenses into toilet is particularly concerning because their size and ________ allow them to slip through filters（过滤器）meant to keep non-biological waste out of wastewater treatment plants.

The study found that the chemical and mechanical processing at these treatment facilities were unable to ________ break down contact lenses, leaving them as part of the treated water. Post-treatment wastewater is typically spread on fields, where contact lenses can make their way into surface water and cause environmental damage.

It may seem like a small thing, but with over 45 million contact ________ in the United States, all that plastic adds up. We are talking about 22 tons of contact lenses being improperly thrown away every year here, unnecessarily adding to the hundreds of thousands of tons of microplastics ________ in our oceans.

So what is the right way to throw away contact lenses?

It turns out that properly dealing with contact lenses is pretty ________. One option is to throw them in the garbage. While this will keep them out of our water ________, it sends them to landfill—which is not really any better. Unfortunately, you can’t just throw your contacts in the recycling bin and call it a day, either. Due to their size and packaging materials, recycling facilities typically cannot ________ contact lens processing, so they go to landfills. In order to actually be recycled, contact lenses need to be ________ at a specialty recycling facility.

This doesn’t mean that all eco-conscious contact-wearers must stick to glasses, though. Fortunately, in an effort to ________ the waste produced by contact lenses and facilitate the recycling process, some eye care companies have started their own recycling ________. Through these programs, individuals can ship their used contacts to TerraCycle (a company that ________ in recycling the hard-to-recycle) for free.

In the deepest dive in a manned submersible(潜水器), US explorer Victor Vescovo spotted and video-recorded a plastic bag and a pile of candy wrappers on the seabed.

His _________ of plastic waste 11.2 kilometers below sea level in the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest known point in the Earth’s oceans, means there is _________ on this planet plastic waste cannot reach, _________ it has been found on Mount Qomolangma and in both Arctic and Antarctic waters.

Since the patent(专利) for plastics was _________ in 1907, 8.3 billion tons of plastic products have already been produced, of which 6.3 billion have been poured into oceans _________ processing.

Most of the discarded(丢弃) plastic products _________ in the ocean. In the Pacific Ocean, plastic garbage and other waste have already formed a(n) _________ that’s 1.6 million square kilometers in size. That is the size of Mongolia.

Every year, about 8 million tons of plastic waste flow into the ocean. It is _________ that the total weight of plastic waste will reach 12 _________ tons by 2050, more than the total weight of oceanic fish.

This plastic waste __________ life in the oceans and on the land alike by filling in their stomachs so they cannot eat, or __________ around their bodies so they cannot breathe. It pollutes the __________ and prevents plants’ roots from digging deep into the ground. Plastic micro-particles(微粒) also join the water __________ and enter the bodies of animals, including humans. As humans are at the top of the food __________ , plastic micro-particles accumulate inside our bodies.

We must do something to __________ the situation. Don’t get plastic bags at the supermarket and take your own reusable one __________ . Give up fast delivery lunches and instead cook or go to the restaurant. Get into the __________ of sorting your garbage.

But that’s so much __________ said than done. Environmentalists have been __________ behavioral changes for at least three decades, yet we __________ to use a growing amount of plastic products.