How Did the Pandemic Affect Our Perception of Sustainability? Enlightening the Major Positive Impact on Health and the Environment

Abstract

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome COVID-19 virus 2 (COVID-19) virus disease 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on 9 January 2020, the entire world has been exceptionally interested in examining the impact of this pandemic on people and the environment. The pandemic led to unprecedented measures to halt air traffic and close factories due to lockdowns, economic closures, and the stopping of transportation of all kinds. The decline in the use of coal by power plants, oil refining, and steel manufacturing had a beneficial effect on air pollution and caused a decrease in carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, the concept of sustainability has become more prevalent, reflecting the increasing awareness of the responsibility placed on every member of society. Sustainability is the quality and quantity of change that meets our needs without destroying the giving planet, which is the hope for the survival of future generations. We summarized and discussed the studies and research documenting these effects on the environment and health worldwide to come up with objective conclusions, and to draw some recommendations and concepts about the importance of sustainability. The significance of this article lies in that it aims to briefly review some of the positive and negative impacts observed and reported during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on health and the planet’s environment for the duration of April 2020–October 2022, and finally discuss the challenges and prospects to endorse planet sustainability. While COVID-19 had many beneficial effects on the planet’s recovery, there were also profound effects on health due to the disease itself. Government and policymakers must take measures to prevent this environmental healing process from being transient.