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The pandemic-induced emissions decline didn't last, but it did save lives

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TORONTO -

We know that harmful greenhouse gas emissions declined during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We also know that when it comes to the big picture of climate change, that decline doesn't mean very much – it wasn't long before emissions started ramping right back up.

What we didn't know, until the recent release of some new research, is that there was a significant long-term positive consequence of that emissions drop – involving as many as tens of thousands of lives that were saved.

In this week's Riskin Report, Â鶹´«Ã½ Science and Technology Specialist Dan Riskin explains how the global response to COVID-19 had the unintended consequence of saving lives that otherwise would have been cut short due to pollution.

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