According to the International Energy Agency, as much as 2.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide will never be emitted into the atmosphere as a result of the pandemic. That’s almost 8 percent of the estimated total for the entire year. This is the biggest drop in emissions in recent history, which sounds promising—some polluted cities are even seeing smog-free skies.Unfortunately, this is a drop in the bucket compared to the long-term changes that would need to be made to reverse the damage to our environment. As the threat of COVID-19 starts to fade, people will likely get back to their daily lives, and emissions will return to the status quo.“Broadly speaking, the only real times we've seen large emission reductions globally in the past few decades is during major recessions,â€