COVID-19 Pandemic Effects on the Environment

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been a constant in everyone’s lives for almost the past three years now and has embedded itself into basically every part of global society and norms. The main areas where this is evident are in the major disruptions in the economic, social, and public health sectors of the world. There is one other area that has been affected by this prolonged pandemic in a multitude of ways, the environment. Our environment, both globally and regionally, has seen both positive and negative effects throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in a variety of different areas. These studied effects are direct or indirect results of changes to policy or social norms seen throughout the past few years caused by the global pandemic. The affected areas of research include noticeable changes in air quality, water pollution, and plastic waste along with a number of other important environmental topics. The purpose of this literature review is to summarize and assess the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the environment from many different perspectives as well as briefly discuss future implications of the findings as well as possible research