Young Kwak photo
Staying home had a noticeable impact on carbon emissions, which plummeted globally last year by nearly 2 billion metric tons in 2020.
F
rom her home, under the flight path to the Spokane International Airport, Amber Lenhart usually hears the recurring roar of airplanes overhead.
But that stopped a year ago. When the pandemic hit, days would go by without her hearing that familiar roar.
It wasn't just that people weren't flying anymore. They weren't driving either. The streets were emptier. Parking lots were vacant.
"We saw that people can work remote, that we can do our jobs from home," says Lenhart, who at one time worked for Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonprofit that aims to improve public policy. "In that job I would travel all over the country to Wisconsin, Hawaii, California, and I'd drive across three or four states a few times a month. And now we see we can do that all from our living rooms."