Air pollution is returning to pre-covid levels
This bodes ill for respiratory health
COVID-19 IS NOT all bad, as any city-dweller who stepped outside this year will have seen. The virus has killed hundreds of thousands of people and decimated economies around the world. But as GDP has fallen so has air pollution. This spring marked the first time in decades that residents of Jalandhar in northern India were able to see the snow-capped Himalayan mountains, 160km (100 miles) away.
This article appeared in the Graphic detail section of the print edition under the headline “Blue skies turn grey”
Graphic detail
September 5th 2020
From the September 5th 2020 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the edition
How much worse could America’s measles outbreak get?
Our charts show how falling vaccination rates could lead to a surge in cases

Russia’s military parades have become a sign of weakness
Will this year’s event buck the trend?

Which countries have the best, and worst, living standards?
A ranking of 193 countries shows that human development is stalling almost everywhere
Who will be the next pope? Our tracker gives the odds
Punters have already plunked down $32m on the main contenders
Our Carrie Bradshaw index shows Australia’s housing is in crisis
In most big cities, the average worker struggles to afford their own place
Which stockmarkets have benefited from the chaos on Wall Street?
Investors are chasing resilience, not dazzling returns