Villar: Cleaner environment should be the ‘new normal’
Senator Cynthia Villar said that besides health and hygiene, the environment also plays a crucial role in the prevention in the spread and minimizing the effects of the coronavirus or Covid-19. Thus a clean and green environment should be part of the “new normal”. Villar cited that improving air quality is a good start. Emissions of a variety of gases related to energy and transport has been significantly reduced due to limited economic activity and mobility of people. Prior to the enhance community quarantine (ECQ) and lockdown, the Philippines ranked 57th out of 98 countries in IQAirAirVisual’s list of the world’s most polluted countries in 2019. Level of concentrations of particulate matter called PM2.5 averaged 17.6 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3) in the country last year, an increase from 14.6 μg/m3 in 2018. These exceeded the World Health Organization’s (...